Peer Reviewed Journal via three different mandatory reviewing processes, since 2006, and, from September 2020, a fourth mandatory peer-editing has been added.
A powered orthosis has applications ranging from assisting the elderly to augmenting astronauts. An assistive control scheme is developed that uses the force from a slave actuator to augment the force of a master actuator. This can be used to augment a closed-loop control scheme applied to the master actuator. Initially, actuator augmentation is explored both theoretically and experimentally using a simple mechanical system. The control scheme is then applied to a scale model of human lower limbs on a stationary bicycle to investigate the feasibility of a powered orthosis using pneumatic muscle actuators.