A myocontrolled neuroprosthesis integrated with a passive exoskeleton to support upper limb activities

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Emilia Ambrosini^a ; ^b ; ^{emilia.ambrosini@polimi.it" class="auth_mail}Author Vitae ; Simona Ferrante^aAuthor Vitae ; Thomas Schauer^cAuthor Vitae ; Christian Klauer^cAuthor Vitae ; Marina Gaffuri^dAuthor Vitae ; Giancarlo Ferrigno^aAuthor Vitae ; Alessandra Pedrocchi^aAuthor Vitae
• 关键词：Neuromuscular electrical stimulation ; Myocontrolled neuroprosthesis ; M-wave ; Volitional EMG ; Neurological disorders ; Rehabilitation
• 刊名：Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology
• 出版年：April, 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：24
• 期：2
• 页码：307-317
• 全文大小：2628 K

文摘

This work aimed at designing a myocontrolled arm neuroprosthesis for both assistive and rehabilitative purposes.

The performance of an adaptive linear prediction filter and a high-pass filter to estimate the volitional EMG was evaluated on healthy subjects (N = 10) and neurological patients (N = 8) during dynamic hybrid biceps contractions. A significant effect of filter (p = 0.017 for healthy; p < 0.001 for patients) was obtained. The post hoc analysis revealed that for both groups only the adaptive filter was able to reliably detect the presence of a small volitional contribution.

An on/off non-linear controller integrated with an exoskeleton for weight support was developed. The controller allowed the patient to activate/deactivate the stimulation intensity based on the residual EMG estimated by the adaptive filter. Two healthy subjects and 3 people with Spinal Cord Injury were asked to flex the elbow while tracking a trapezoidal target with and without myocontrolled-NMES support. Both healthy subjects and patients easily understood how to use the controller in a single session. Two patients reduced their tracking error by more than 60% with NMES support, while the last patient obtained a tracking error always comparable to the healthy subjects performance (<4掳).

This study proposes a reliable and feasible solution to combine NMES with voluntary effort.