Cover letter for resubmission of the paper to to the ASEAN Engineering Journal

Quy-Thinh Dao

School of Electrical Engineering

Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam.

[01/12/2021]
Dear Editor-in-chief of the ASEAN Engineering Journal,
Thank you very much for giving us an opportunity to revise the manuscript “ Development of
Rehabilitation Robot: Modeling and Trajectory Tracking Control ”. We would like to express our
thanks to the reviewers for their positive feedback and constructive comments.
We have addressed the major concerns of the reviewers. As recommended by the reviewer B,
we correct all the equations and add the definitions of z1, z2 and z3 in Equation (17) .
The Introduction section of the manuscript is also clarified based on the comments of the
reviewer 2. In addition, the information is provided to improve the schematic diagram in
Figure 2. The identification procedure and stability analysis of the system are also make more
clearly in revised manuscript. It is our belief that the manuscript is significantly improved
after making the suggested revision.
Along with this letter are our responses to the reviewer comments in details. Changes made in
the revised manuscript are highlighted. The revision has been carefully accomplished in
consultation with all coauthors, and each author has given the approval to the final version of
this revision.
Thank you again for the consideration of our revised manuscript. We very much hope that the
revised manuscript fulfills the requirements of the reviewers.
Sincerely yours,
Quy-Thinh Dao
 RESPONSE TO REVIEWER 1 COMMENTS
Comment 1:
The rod on which the PAMs pull the mechanism is modelled as a pulley, this is valid only for
small angle displacements of knee joint or hip joint, see Fig. 1 and 2..
Response 1:
Comment 2:
In a sentence after Equation (20) it is written:
“Following [20], the generalized term f(t), which can be taken into account as a total
disturbance, is insignificant.”
If the value of f(t) is insignificant, why should it be estimated and suppressed?
Response 1:
Comment 3:
Equation (7) valid only for small theta.
4. What is meant by f' (f dot) in Equation (16)?
5. Typo in Equation (17)
6. Describe the definitions of z1, z2 and z3 in Equation (17)
7. Figure 4, the inputs to the observer are "delta P" and joint angle "theta". Since the
relationship between "delta P" and "theta" is nonlinear, therefore this observer is valid only
for small joint angle displacements.

RESPONSE TO REVIEWER 2 COMMENTS

This paper presents a prototype pneumatic artificial muscle-based assistive robot named
BK-Gait and employs a control strategy for trajectory tracking purposes. An active
disturbance rejection control (ADRC) strategy is developed to improve the tracking
performance of the robot. Some of the ideas presented in the paper are interesting and
useful, but the authors are asked to clarify the original contribution of the research. For
experimental result section, the author just compares angle response and reference but
not use a disturbance force estimation from ADRC observer. In the current form, the
contribution of the paper is too weak. I recommend the author to rewrite the paper
considering the following points.

Comment 1.

The motivation of using ADRC observer and disturbance rejection should be

supplemented more. The disturbance force estimation from ADRC observer must be
included in the paper.
Comment 2
All parameters in the equation and figure should be defined and clearly explained by the
authors at the first use. What’s the parameter of state variable z1h, z2h, z3h, z1k, z2k and
z3k?
Comment 3

What about bandwidth and robustness of the proposed method regarding e.g.
parameter uncertainties, friction and other (unknown) system perturbation, that can be
met in practical robotic systems?
Comment 4

How to calculate the value of identified system parameters as shown in observer?

Comment 5

The authors should state clearly how the parameter of controller and observer can be
designed to obtain superior performance. How did you design how the parameter of
controller and observer in general cases and how did you design in experiments? Please
add this information in the experiments section. All the parameters of observer and
controller should be summarized in the table.
Comment 6

The number of recent reference papers is not sufficient. Please add more recent papers
on similar research topics.
Comment 7

The experimental results of the proposed method such as estimation results of observer,
force/torque sensor must be included in the paper and compared the motion efficiency
with the other recent method. Please describe more concrete analysis and opinions for
advantage point of the proposed method in more detail.
Comment 8

In the figure 7 a), please use english language only.