Motion assistive apparatus and method of controlling the same

A method of controlling a motion assistive apparatus comprising:

• receiving, via a receiver, an adjustment command to including a requested adjustment to variable characteristics associated with torque applied to one or more joints of the motion assistive apparatus;
• reading, from a memory, a first correlation between the variable characteristics and time response characteristics of the torque, the variable characteristics including a magnitude of an assist power, a response speed of the motion assistive apparatus and a motion smoothness of the motion assistive apparatus, the time response characteristics including an overshoot, a rise time, and a settling time;
• reading, from the memory, a second correlation between the time response characteristics and one or more variable parameters, the one or more variable parameters including mass, Coriolis force and gravitational force;
• selecting, using a processor, selected variable parameters from among one or more of the variable parameters based on the first correlation and the second correlation;
• adjusting, using the processor, the selected variable parameters to generate an adjusted selected variable parameters by increasing or decreasing the selected variable parameters based on the requested adjustment to the variable characteristics;
• adjusting, using the processor, the time response characteristics by adjusting intermediate characteristics based on the adjusted selected variable parameters, the intermediate characteristics including one or more of damping ratio and natural frequency;
• and
• outputting the assist power in response to the adjustment of the one or more variable parameters.

A motion assistive apparatus configured to generate an assist power to assist a user thereof with walking, the motion assistive apparatus comprising:

• a memory configured to store,
• a first correlation between variable characteristics and time response characteristics of a torque, the variable characteristics including a magnitude of the assist power, a response speed of the motion assistive apparatus and a motion smoothness of the motion assistive apparatus, the time response characteristics including an overshoot, a rise time, and a settling time, and
• a second correlation between the time response characteristics and one or more variable parameters, the one or more variable parameters including mass, Coriolis force and gravitational force;
• and
• a processor configured to, in response to an input received from the user, the input including a requested adjustment to variable characteristics associated with the torque applied to one or more joints of the motion assistive apparatus,
• select selected variable parameters from among one or more of the variable parameters based on the first correlation and the second correlation,
• adjust the selected variable parameters to generate an adjusted selected variable parameters by increasing or decreasing the selected variable parameters based on the requested adjustment to the variable characteristics, and
• adjust time response characteristics by adjusting intermediate characteristics based on the adjusted selected variable parameters, the intermediate characteristics including one or more of damping ratio and natural frequency.