Thesis of Yiru Guo

Modeling and EMG-Based Control of a Flexible Upper-Limb Exoskeleton

Nowadays, most mechanical systems are made of rigid materials with actively or passively actuated joints, in order to transfer torque, force, and energy through the movements of rigid links, which are however heavy and cumbersome, limiting its applications in practice. In order to overcome this limitation, this thesis focuses on replacing rigid parts with flexible parts, called Compliant Mechanism, preserving the same functionality only by deflecting the flexible body. In order to achieve this task, the first work consists in analyzing the influence on the performance of the size and shape of the flexible mechanism. Such analysis allows us to search for the optimal structure of the mechanism designed to provide the best performance. After that, we will study the static and dynamic model of this system using the beam theory (Euler-Bernoulli, Cosserat,...), based on which we will design a robust controller.

Jury

M. Gang ZHENG Directeur de recherche Centre Inria de l'Université de Lille Directeur de thèse, M. Andrey POLYAKOV Chargé de recherche Centre Inria de l'Université de Lille Co-directeur de thèse, Mme Marie BABEL Professeure IRISA Rennes Rapporteure, M. Chao LIU Chargé de recherche LIRMM, CNRS Rapporteur, M. Jean-Pierre BARBOT Professeur émérite ENSEA Examinateur, M. Frédéric BOYER Professeur IMT Atlantique Examinateur.

Thesis of the teams VALSE and DEFROST defended on 19/05/2026