Exponential sliding mode controller for a nonlinear musculoskeletal human arm model

Abstract

The movement of a human arm is simulated by controlling the musculoskeletal nonlinear model of the arm in this work. In many incidents of spinal cord damage due to car accident, the functionality of hands is disturbed while the hand muscles are intact and healthy. In another words, hands don't receive proper motion signals from brain. In this study a nonlinear controller is developed to produce a replacement motion signal for the missed original signal. Derived equations are forced to satisfy the gravity forces and the arm's six muscles performance. This model is designed to satisfy the main two goals of “regulation” and “tracking” and at the same time reduce the “chattering” of the system.