The proposed paper discusses the design and characterization of a soft miniature Magneto-Rheological (MR) shock absorber. In particular, the final application considered for the insertion of the designed devices is a controllable variable stiffness sole for patients with foot neuropathy. Such application imposes particularly challenging constraints in terms of miniaturization (cross-sectional area ≤ 1.5 cm2, height ≤ 25 mm) and high sustainable loads (normal loads up to 60 N and shear stresses at the foot/device interface up to 80 kPa) while ensuring moderate to low level of power consumption. Initial design considerations are done to introduce and justify the chosen novel configuration of soft shock absorber embedding a MR valve as the core control element. Successively, the dimensioning of two different MR valves typologies is discussed. In particular, for each configuration two design scenarios are evaluated and consequently two sets of valves satisfying different specifications are manufactured. The obtained prototypes result in miniature modules (external diam. ≤ 15 mm, overall height ≤ 30 mm) with low power consumption (from a minimum of 63 mW to a max. of 110 mW) and able to sustain a load up to 65 N. Finally, experimental sessions are performed to test the behaviour of the realized shock absorbers and results are presented.

The paper introduces Extended Identification-Based Predictive Control (EIPC), which is a novel control method developed for the problem of adaptive impact mitigation. The model-based approach utilizing the paradigm of Model Predictive Control is combined with sequential identification of selected system parameters and process disturbances. The elaborated method is implemented in the shock-absorber control system and tested under impact loading conditions. The presented numerical study proves the successful and efficient adaptation of the absorber to unknown excitation conditions as well as to unknown force and leakage disturbances appearing during the process. The EIPC is used for both semi-active and active control of the impact mitigation process, which are compared in detail. In addition, the influence of selected control parameters and disturbance identification on the efficiency of the impact absorption process is assessed. As a result, it can be concluded that an efficient and robust control method was developed and successfully applied to the problem of adaptive impact mitigation.