Abstract
In this study, we designed a dynamic output feedback control for a walking assistance training robot. The proposed system addresses the problems of shifts in the center of gravity and vibration associated with time-varying arm of force in omniwheel to improve the accuracy of the trajectory tracking of the walking assistance training robot. The dynamic output feedback controller was developed by constructing a velocity observer on a stochastic dynamic model of the walking assistance training robot via integration with a Lyapunov function. An analysis of the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel revealed that it increased the accuracy of the walking assistance training robot dynamic model. Thus, an adaptive law was designed such that the vibration caused by the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel was eliminated. The mean absolute practical stability in the position and velocity tracking errors was verified based on Young’s inequality and stochastic stability theory. The simulation results show that the walking assistance training robot with the shifts in the center of gravity was able to track a designed trajectory and that the application of the adaptive law effectively eliminates the vibrations caused by the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel.
Keywords
Introduction
Lower limb rehabilitation robots have become a focal point of modern medical technology due to population aging and rates of disability are in a trend of rising year by year. 1 –3 Lower limb rehabilitation robots can be divided into two types 4 those that exercise a patient’s leg muscles without actual movement by maintaining a fixed posture, such as sitting, 5 lying down, 6 or hanging, 7 and those that are mounted on motion systems, including exoskeleton robots 8,9 and mobile robots. The first type of lower limb rehabilitation robots is more suitable for patients with severe muscle injuries but do not help to recover neurological function. On the other hand, exoskeleton robots help the patient move by applying supporting forces externally to the legs and must maintain balance to ensure the safety of the patient, an area of active research. Due to the reduced ability of the elderly to maintain balance and lower velocity of motion, mobile robots are more applicable for the elderly. Mobile lower limb rehabilitation robots may also be applied in hospitals and homes, so they must be able to operate in narrow spaces; therefore, they should be mounted with mechanical structures that are capable of omnidirectional motion.
Standard mobile robots can just realize the motions of forward, backward, left, and right, but are not capable of lateral movement. 10 Omniwheels (i.e. omnidirectional wheels) have been incorporated into mobile robots to provide them with three degrees of freedom so they can obtain the movement with any direction 11 and, thus, maneuver through narrow and complex areas with accurate positioning. For example, an omnidirectional collaborative robot can help its human user to drive a heavy load along a designated path. 12 In a previous study, an omnidirectional configuration and control method were presented for a miniature-forklift guided vehicle, which can be applied in logistics, production, and maintenance. 13 Compared to the traditional cross-country vehicles, omnidirectional robots have superior maneuverability and cross-country capability. 14
Therefore, in this study, four omniwheels were mounted on a walking assistance training robot to allow it to move omnidirectionally; however, this also presented a challenge in the control of the robot. Unlike vehicles with standard wheels, omnidirectional vehicles suffer from noticeable jitter in the orientation angle. Unfortunately, the majority of the former researches neglected the problem while others attempted to reduce this jitter by adjusting the gains in the controller. Here, we also investigated the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel to analyze the reason of the jitter in the orientation angle. Then, we applied an adaptive technique to eliminate this jitter.
It is well known that accurate position and velocity data are essential for mechanical control systems; this is especially true for the walking assistance training robot since it requires very precise trajectory tracking. Usually, the position of the walking assistance training robot can be detected by high-precision sensors, such as a camera, infrared sensor, or radar. However, high-precision mechanical sensors to measure velocity are expensive, very sensitive to changes in the external environment, easily perturbed by noise, and are large and heavy; consequently, they are often omitted. To overcome these problems, an output feedback controller that does not require velocity measurements has been developed by leveraging a velocity observer to estimate the velocity of the walking assistance training robot.
For the practical applications of mechanical systems, random disturbances and random uncertainties are inevitable but may greatly impact the mechanical performance and properties. In the past few decades, the stochastic stability theory has been widely used to address this problem with excellent results. 15 –19 Recently, the stochastic theory has been used to develop some effective control methods for real mechanical system applications. For example, a stochastic model was constructed for a manipulator system working in an environment with random vibrations. 20 In another study, an adaptive control approach was developed for a flexible-jointed robot faced with random disturbances 21 Moreover, a stochastic model and an H∞-robust method were presented to handle the noise in the input–output measurements of a floating raft. 22 However, these methods only consider the random vibration in the input channels (external disturbances). Another study 23 was conducted to investigate a symbolic and numeric scheme to solve linear differential equations with random parameter uncertainties. However, few results regarding nonlinear dynamic systems with the internal random parameters have been reported. In our previous study, 24 we proposed a stochastic dynamic model that considers random shifts in the center of gravity (i.e. an internal random parameter) and designed a robust adaptive tracking controller that stabilizes the trajectory-tracking error of the system using stochastic modeling.
Here, we propose a novel stochastic dynamic model to investigate further the problems associated with time-varying arm of force in omniwheel and random shifts in the center of gravity without the use of a velocity sensor. High-precision trajectory tracking is a challenging task for the walking assistance training robot model due to the random shifts in the center of gravity. Thus, the motion of the walking assistance training robot with random shifts in the center of gravity is depicted by a stochastic dynamic model by converting the random parameters into random disturbances. Moreover, by investigating the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel, we show the cause of the angle jitter and design an adaptive law to adjust the unknown vector in the controller and, thereby, eliminate the angle jitter. In addition, a velocity sensor is omitted from the walking assistance training robot design and, instead, a velocity observer was proposed to address the dynamic output feedback control and make the tracking error system exponentially practically stable. Then, it was verified that the tracking error and observation errors tend to an arbitrarily small neighborhood around zero upon turning the design parameters based on the stochastic stability theorem and Markov’s inequality. Finally, a stability analysis was conducted and simulations were executed to show that the adaptive law eliminates the angle jitter, the velocity observation is accurate, and the walking assistance training robot tracks a designed trajectory.
Improved stochastic dynamic model of walking assistance training robot with the random shifts in the center of gravity and time-varying arm of force in omniwheel
Figure 1 shows the structure of the walking assistance training robot. 25 During rehabilitation training, the walking assistance training robot works with the user and, thus, experiences random shifts in the center of gravity as shown in the coordinate system in Figure 2.

Structure of the walking assistance training robot.

Coordinate of the walking assistance training robot.
In Figure 2,
To design the controller, the dynamic model is given as follows 25
where
In order to more closely describe the motion of the walking assistance training robot when the user manipulate it, the dynamic model has considered the mass of the walking assistance training robot, m
r, and its user’s equivalent mass, m
u, in addition,
The random shifts in the center of gravity has an internal system uncertainty, which tends to be problematic in many mechanical systems such as mobile robots and manipulators. In previous studies, the random shifts in the center of gravity was considered as a constant such that general control could be conducted. However, the proposed walking assistance training robot must work in narrow spaces such as indoor environments. Therefore, to ensure the safety of the user during rehabilitation, the walking assistance training robot requires a higher trajectory-tracking accuracy than most vehicles do. Thus, in a previous study,
24
the random shifts in the center of gravity were described using a stochastic model. Based on this constructed model, a controller was designed, and the developed trajectory-tracking system was shown to be stable. Applying the approach in the study by Chang et al.
24
and defining
where
Here,
In the stochastic model defined in equations (2) and (3), the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel was assumed to be the same as that in a standard wheel (i.e. the system was modeled without driven wheels); moreover, it was assumed that a touch force was exerted at the middle of each of the two rows of driven wheels and the arm of force was calculated relative to the geometric center to this point. However, the structure of the omniwheel and the actual time-varying arm of force in omniwheel are shown in Figures 3 and 4, respectively. In reality, the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel will shift among the two rows of driven wheels. In addition, since

Structure of the omniwheel.

Time-varying arm of force in omniwheel of the ith wheel.
where
and
where
As equation (7) implies, the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel primarily influences the angle velocity,
Remark 1
Generally, as the matrix
Remark 2
Equations (7) and
Assumption 1
Physically speaking, the angular velocity,
where
Control design
Design of the velocity observer and tracking system
To estimate the unmeasurable statev(t), a velocity observer was designed as follows
where
where
where
Design of the adaptive law and dynamic output feedback controller
The Lyapunov function is designed as follows
The infinitesimal generator of equation (17) along with equations (15) and (16) satisfies
By analyzing equation (18) and applying Young’s inequality and equation (8), the following inequalities can be obtained
where
Substituting equations (19) to (23) into equation (18), the following can be obtained
Hence, the dynamic output feedback controller is designed as follows
where
Here,
Then, the adaptive laws are designed as follows
where
Combining equations (5), (7), and (28), yields
Substituting equations (25) to (29) into equation (24), we have
where
Remark 3
Equation (3) is an exceptional situation of equation (7) when
where
Analysis of stability
Theorem 1
For the stochastic dynamic model of the walking assistance training robot that can handle random shifts in the center of gravity and time-varying arm of force in omniwheel, the dynamic output feedback controller described in equation (25) is designed to track a reference trajectory,
It is noteworthy that the terms on the right-hand sides of equations (32) to (35) could be adjusted to sufficient small by selecting an appropriate set of design parameters.
Proof
In the stochastic dynamic model of the walking assistance training robot, B(t), and N(t) are smooth matrixes, which insure the local Lipschitz condition of them hold. In the same way, it is easy to receive that the local Lipschitz conditions of
Furthermore, the inequality in equation (30) can be multiplied by
Based on Lemma 3.3.1 in the study by Khasminskii
27
and integrating equation (36) from
From equation (17), it can be found that
Considering equations (38) and (39) and given that
Remark 4
Applying Markov’s inequality and considering that
Substituting equations (42) to (45) into equations (32) to (35), respectively, the following equations are obtained
By choosing the parameters in the controller and adaptive laws, the right-hand-side terms of equations (46) to (49) can be made sufficiently small, implying that asymptotical tracking with the controller in equation (25) can be realized with a given probability. Thus, when selecting the design parameters of the controller and the adaptive law, the effects of the tracking errors must be considered carefully.
Simulation study
Next, a simulation was conducted to show that the proposed method can be used to provide sufficient walking assistance training robot performance with random shifts in the center of gravity and time-varying arm of force in omniwheel. To verify the tracking performance of the walking assistance training robot with the proposed method, an astroid trajectory,
The physical parameters were

Variation in the arm of force.

Adaptive laws.
In Figure 7, the blue line is the reference trajectory, and the red line is the response of the walking assistance training robot on its x-axis component, y-axis component, orientation angle, and specific movement. Figure 7 shows the position trajectories in terms of the X-position, Y-position, and angle, as well as the astroid path. The simulation result shows that the walking assistance training robot can accurately track the astroid trajectory (equation (50)), indicating that exponentially practical stability of the trajectory-tracking system was obtained. Figure 8 shows the velocity tracking in terms of the X-position, Y-position, and angle. These results show that the velocity tracing was very accurate. The velocity observer (green line) was shown to accurately observe the velocity of the walking assistance training robot (red line). Figure 8(d) shows that the mean absolute errors were sufficiently small. The trajectory tracking was accurate not only because the velocity observer works effectively and the tracking controller can account for the random parameters resulting from the random shifts in the center of gravity but also the adaptive laws shown in Figure 6. The adaptive laws can immediately adjust the parameters in the controller to handle unknown functions in the dynamic model due to the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel.

Position tracking performance of the walking assistance training robot for the (a) X-position, (b) Y-position, (c) orientation angle, and (d) the astroid path using the adaptive controller (equation (25)).

Velocity tracking performance of the walking assistance training robot for the (a) X-position, (b) Y-position, (c) angle using the adaptive controller (equation (25)), and (d) the mean absolute error.
To demonstrate the need for the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel analysis for the walking assistance training robot, a simulation was conducted with a proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller for comparison. The physical parameters and the designed trajectory were the same as mentioned above but the center of gravity did not shift (i.e.

Position tracking performance of the walking assistance training robot in terms of the (a) X-position, (b) Y-position, (c) orientation angle, and (d) the astroid path with the PID controller. PID: proportional–integral–derivative.

Velocity tracking performance of the walking assistance training robot in terms of the (a) X-position, (b) Y-position, (c) angle with the PID controller, and (d) the mean absolute error. PID: proportional–integral–derivative.
Figures 9(a) and (b) and 10(a) and (b) depict the trajectory tracking on the X- and Y-axes was very accurate. However, Figures 9(c) and 10(c) show that there are tracking errors for the position and velocity angles fluctuated significantly over the entire simulation. Thus, it can be concluded that the PID controller don’t have the ability to effectively eliminate the jitter caused by the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel. This simulation showed that the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel significantly affects the angle in the trajectory tracking as indicated by the analysis in Remark 1, demonstrating the need to consider the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel. These simulation results support Theorem 1, as well as the effectiveness of the proposed method.
In order to better illustrate that the controller has good tracking ability, we give another group of simulation that makes the walking assistance training robot track a cycloid trajectory. The random parameters caused by random shifts in the center of gravity and the design parameters of the controller are same as mentioned above. The cycloid trajectory and simulation results are shown as follows
Figure 11 gives the adaptive laws, in which

Adaptive laws.

Position tracking performance of the walking assistance training robot for the (a) X-position, (b) Y-position, (c) orientation angle, and (d) the cycloid path using the adaptive controller (equation (25)).

Velocity tracking performance of the walking assistance training robot for the (a) X-position, (b) Y-position, (c) orientation angle using the adaptive controller (equation (25)), and (d) the mean absolute error.
Conclusions
In this study, we developed tracking control for a walking assistance training robot to handle random shifts in the center of gravity and time-varying arm of force in omniwheel using a stochastic dynamic model. Rather than using a velocity sensor, a velocity observer was designed to observe the velocity of the walking assistance training robot, which was combined the position information to form the input information for the controller. The analysis of time-varying arm of force in omniwheel revealed that it mainly influenced the jitter in orientation angle and the scope of jitter is affected by the size of input. An adaptive law was constructed to eliminate the vibrations caused by the time-varying arm of force in omniwheel. Then, using the Lyapunov function and Markov’s inequality, an output feedback trajectory-tracking controller was proposed. It was confirmed that the mean absolute errors in the trajectory tracking of the proposed walking assistance training robot were exponentially practically stable under both random shifts in the center of gravity and time-varying arm of force in omniwheel. In addition, the mean absolute error in the trajectory tracking was shown to become arbitrarily small after turning the design parameters. Moreover, the simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
The proposed stochastic model, adaptive law, and output feedback trajectory-tracking controller are expected to be extensible to other mechanical systems that experience random shifts in the center of gravity and time-varying arm of force in omniwheel. In addition, omniwheels are more vulnerable than general wheels TOR friction effect. Therefore, considering both time-varying arm of force and friction, it will be more beneficial to the application of omniwheel.
Footnotes
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was partly supported by the JSPS KAKENHI (grant no. 15H03951), the CANON Foundation, and the CASIO Science Promotion Foundation.
