TY - GEN
T1 - A novel FES control paradigm based on muscle synergies for postural rehabilitation therapy with hybrid exoskeletons
AU - Piazza, S.
AU - Torricelli, D.
AU - Brunetti, F.
AU - Del-Ama, A. J.
AU - Gil-Agudo, A.
AU - Pons, Jose L
PY - 2012/12/14
Y1 - 2012/12/14
N2 - Hybrid exoskeletons combine robotic orthoses and motor neuroprosthetic devices to compensate for motor disabilities and assist rehabilitation. The basic idea is to take benefits from the strength of each technology, primarily the power of robotic actuators and the clinical advantages of using patient's muscles, while compensating for the respective weaknesses: weight and autonomy for the former, fatigue and stability for the latter. While a wide repertory of solutions have been proposed in literature for the control of robotic orthoses and simple motor neuroprosthesis, the same problem on a complex hybrid architecture, involving a wide number of muscles distributed on multiple articulations, still waits for a practical solution. In this article we present a general algorithm for the control of the neuroprosthesis in the execution of functional coordinated movements. The method extracts muscle synergies as a mean to diagnose residual neuromotor capabilities, and adapts the rehabilitation exercise to patient requirements in a dynamic way. Fatigue effects and unexpected perturbations are compensated by monitoring functional state variables estimated from sensors in the robot. The proposed concept is applied to a case-study scenario, in which a postural balance rehabilitation therapy is presented.
AB - Hybrid exoskeletons combine robotic orthoses and motor neuroprosthetic devices to compensate for motor disabilities and assist rehabilitation. The basic idea is to take benefits from the strength of each technology, primarily the power of robotic actuators and the clinical advantages of using patient's muscles, while compensating for the respective weaknesses: weight and autonomy for the former, fatigue and stability for the latter. While a wide repertory of solutions have been proposed in literature for the control of robotic orthoses and simple motor neuroprosthesis, the same problem on a complex hybrid architecture, involving a wide number of muscles distributed on multiple articulations, still waits for a practical solution. In this article we present a general algorithm for the control of the neuroprosthesis in the execution of functional coordinated movements. The method extracts muscle synergies as a mean to diagnose residual neuromotor capabilities, and adapts the rehabilitation exercise to patient requirements in a dynamic way. Fatigue effects and unexpected perturbations are compensated by monitoring functional state variables estimated from sensors in the robot. The proposed concept is applied to a case-study scenario, in which a postural balance rehabilitation therapy is presented.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84870843653&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84870843653&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/EMBC.2012.6346316
DO - 10.1109/EMBC.2012.6346316
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 23366277
AN - SCOPUS:84870843653
SN - 9781424441198
T3 - Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
SP - 1868
EP - 1871
BT - 2012 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2012
T2 - 34th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS 2012
Y2 - 28 August 2012 through 1 September 2012
ER -