High-gain observer-based nonlinear control scheme for biomechanical sit to stand movement in the presence of sensory feedback delays

Sit-to-stand movement (STS) is a mundane activity, controlled by the central-nervous-system (CNS) via a complex neurophysiological mechanism that involves coordination of limbs for successful execution. Detailed analysis and accurate simulations of STS task have significant importance in clinical intervention, rehabilitation process, and better design for assistive devices. The CNS controls STS motion by taking inputs from proprioceptors. These input signals suffer delay in transmission to CNS making movement control and coordination more complex which may lead to larger body exertion or instability. This paper deals with the problem of STS movement execution in the presence of proprioceptive feedback delays in joint position and velocity. We present a high-gain observer (HGO) based feedback linearization control technique to mimic the CNS in controlling the STS transfer. The HGO estimates immeasurable delayed states to generate input signals for feedback. The feedback linearization output control law generates the passive torques at joints to execute the STS movement. The H(2) dynamic controller calculates the optimal linear gains by using physiological variables. The whole scheme is simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. The simulations illustrate physiologically improved results. The ankle, knee, and hip joint position profiles show a high correlation of 0.91, 0.97, 0.80 with the experimentally generated reference profiles. The faster observer dynamics and global boundness of controller result in compensation of delays. The low error and high correlation of simulation results demonstrate (1) the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed scheme for customization of human models and (2) highlight the fact that for detailed analysis and accurate simulations of STS movement the modeling scheme must consider nonlinearities of the system.