The effects of sensory quantization and control torque saturation on human balance control

The effect of reaction delay, temporal sampling, sensory quantization, and control torque saturation is investigated numerically for a single-degree-of-freedom model of postural sway with respect to stability, stabilizability, and control effort. It is known that reaction delay has a destabilizing effect on the balancing process: the later one reacts to a perturbation, the larger the possibility of falling. If the delay is larger than a critical value, then stabilization is not even possible. In contrast, numerical analysis showed that quantization and control torque saturation have a stabilizing effect: the region of stabilizing control gains is greater than that of the linear model. Control torque saturation allows the application of larger control gains without overcontrol while sensory quantization plays a role of a kind of filter when sensory noise is present. These beneficial effects are reflected in the energy demand of the control process. On the other hand, neither control torque saturation nor sensory quantization improves stabilizability properties. In particular, the critical delay cannot be increased by adding saturation and/or sensory quantization.