Admittance-Based Bio-Inspired Cognitive PID Control to Optimize Human-Robot Interaction in Power-Assisted Object Manipulation

A novel approach to PID control for optimizing human-robot interaction (HRI) in manipulating objects with a power assist robotic system (PARS) was presented. The PID control was developed in the form of the admittance control. To take bio-inspiration and fit the control with human cognition, a novel method of inclusion of weight perception in the dynamics and control of the system was proposed. Then, a comprehensive evaluation and optimization scheme was proposed to determine the optimum HRI and co-manipulation performance. A 1-DOF testbed PARS was developed to experimentally verify the proposed control in a pilot study. During the experiments, human subjects lifted objects with the system and the HRI and system characteristics were investigated and analyzed. The results showed that the proposed PID control aligned with human cognition through inclusion of weight perception in the dynamics and control was effective to optimize the HRI and co-manipulation performance. The results can be used to design human-centered control methods for PARSs to assist humans manipulating heavy objects in industries and at homes that can provide optimum HRI and manipulation performance.