Simulation Evaluation for Methods Used to Determine Muscular Internal Force Based on Joint Stiffness Using Muscular Internal Force Feedforward Controller for Musculoskeletal System

Abstract

This study proposes two novel methods for determining the muscular internal force (MIF) based on joint stiffness, using an MIF feedforward controller for the musculoskeletal system. The controller was developed in a previous study, where we found that it could be applied to achieve any desired end-point position without the use of sensors, by providing the MIF as a feedforward input to individual muscles. However, achieving motion with good response and low stiffness using the system, posed a challenge. Furthermore, the controller was subject to an ill-posed problem, where the input could not be uniquely determined. We propose two methods to improve the control performance of this controller. The first method involves determining a MIF that can independently control the response and stiffness at a desired position, and the second method involves the definition of an arbitrary vector that describes the stiffnesses at the initial and desired positions to uniquely determine the MIF balance at each position. The numerical simulation results reported in this study demonstrate the effectiveness of both proposed methods.