Adaptive Model Predictive Control for a Simulated Underwater Hydrofoil-Based Gait Assist System

This paper presents an Adaptive Model Predictive Controller for a hydrofoil-based underwater gait assistance system. The plant for the controller is a double pendulum in water that is kinematically similar to a human leg. External joint torques are applied to simulate the effect of muscle activations, and these torques are reduced to simulate muscle weakness. The paper describes the design of the controller and the process of generating the internal model, including the reasoning behind the controller architecture. The system is tested over a range of torque reductions and demonstrates the ability to compensate for them. Therefore, this approach is suitable for adaptation to actual hardware deployment with human subjects.