Patent ID: 8849457

Claim:
A robot displacement device for use with a robotic frame shaped to approximate and be coupleable to at least a portion of a human body and configured to mimic movement of the human body, the robot displacement device comprising: a force sensor attached to the robotic frame at or near a location associated with an extremity of the human body configured to sense a force between the robotic frame and the extremity of the human body, and output a force signal; a central control unit attached to the robotic frame configured to receive the force signal from the sensor, detect a joint position of the robotic frame, compute a force of gravity and a direction of gravity relative to the position of the robotic frame, and calculate a force of the robotic frame exerted on the human body and a joint rotational force required to counteract the calculated force exerted on the human body by the robotic frame and maintain a controlling interface force status relationship between the robotic frame and the extremity of the human body, implement a sliding gains scheme between load-bearing and non load-bearing portions of the robotic displacement device during operation to optimize power and mobility, and generate and transmit an actuation signal, wherein the sliding gains scheme automatically incorporates a dynamically variable scaling factor based on the force of the robotic frame exerted on the human body to calculate the joint rotational force required to counteract the calculated force exerted on the human body by the robotic frame; and a drive system attached to the robotic frame configured to receive the transmitted actuation signal on an ongoing basis from the central control unit and exert the calculated joint rotational force on a joint component of the robotic frame to counteract the force exerted on the human body by the robotic frame in order to maintain the controlling force status relationship, wherein sliding gains are determined as follows: K j ( s i )= K LOW +( K HIGH −K LOW ) f ( s i ) where j is a Force-Moment gain or a sense gain, i is a right side or a left side, K HIGH is a high gain limiting value, K LOW is a low gain limiting value, and f(s) is a function that varies monotonically from 1to 0 as s varies from 0 to 1, where s is a scale factor for the right side or the left side.