Sensorless Control for Joint Drive Unit of Lower Extremity Exoskeleton with Cascade Feedback Observer

In this paper, a sensorless control method for joint drive unit driven by BLDC motor of low extremity exoskeleton, cascade feedback observer identification method, is proposed. The cascade feedback observer identification method is based on improved Integral-Switching-Function Sliding-Mode-Observer (ISF-SMO) and adaptive FIR filter. The improved Integral-Switching-Function Sliding-Mode-Observer is used to identify the back-EMF of motor. The sliding mode surface redesigned according to Integral-Switching-Function (ISF) eliminates the inevitable chattering problem in conventional Sliding-Mode-Observer (SMO). The stability condition of Integral-Switching-Function Sliding-Mode-Observer is obtained with Lyapunov function. Meanwhile, considering the estimation error and system instability caused by the mismatch between the actual resistance value ( ) and the set resistance value, the LMS algorithm is used to estimate the resistance value online according to the structure of adaptive FIR filter. When system is running, the modified Integral-Switching-Function Sliding-Mode-Observer and adaptive FIR filter are used to modify the back-EMF and the resistance value by cascading feedback relation, and the modified back-EMF value is taken as the final output of the system. Because of considering the uncertainty of resistance caused by temperature variation, the robustness and stability of the cascade feedback observer can be improved. Meanwhile, higher estimation accuracy is obtained, and operation range of sensorless control is extended, which is suitable for motor in low speed region. Finally, the correctness and validity of the proposed method are verified by simulations and experiments.