TY - JOUR
T1 - Anticipatory muscle responses in transitions from rigid to compliant surfaces
T2 - towards smart ankle-foot prostheses
AU - Yumbla, Emiliano Quinones
AU - Obeng, Ruby Afriyie
AU - Ward, Jeffrey
AU - Sugar, Thomas
AU - Artemiadis, Panagiotis
PY - 2019/6/1
Y1 - 2019/6/1
N2 - Locomotion is paramount in enabling human beings to effectively respond in space and time to meet different needs. There are 2 million Americans living with an amputation and the majority of those amputations are of the lower limbs. Although current powered prostheses can accommodate walking, and in some cases running, basic functions like hiking or walking on various non-rigid or dynamic terrains are requirements that have yet to be met. This paper focuses on the mechanisms involved during human locomotion, while transitioning from rigid to compliant surfaces such as from pavement to sand, grass or granular media. Utilizing a unique tool, the Variable Stiffness Treadmill (VST), as the platform for human locomotion, rigid to compliant surface transitions are simulated. The analysis of muscular activation during the transition from rigid to compliant surfaces reveals specific anticipatory muscle activation that precedes stepping on the compliant surface. These results are novel and important since the evoked activation changes can be used for altering the powered prosthesis control parameters to adapt to the new surface, and therefore result in significantly increased robustness for smart powered lower limb prostheses.
AB - Locomotion is paramount in enabling human beings to effectively respond in space and time to meet different needs. There are 2 million Americans living with an amputation and the majority of those amputations are of the lower limbs. Although current powered prostheses can accommodate walking, and in some cases running, basic functions like hiking or walking on various non-rigid or dynamic terrains are requirements that have yet to be met. This paper focuses on the mechanisms involved during human locomotion, while transitioning from rigid to compliant surfaces such as from pavement to sand, grass or granular media. Utilizing a unique tool, the Variable Stiffness Treadmill (VST), as the platform for human locomotion, rigid to compliant surface transitions are simulated. The analysis of muscular activation during the transition from rigid to compliant surfaces reveals specific anticipatory muscle activation that precedes stepping on the compliant surface. These results are novel and important since the evoked activation changes can be used for altering the powered prosthesis control parameters to adapt to the new surface, and therefore result in significantly increased robustness for smart powered lower limb prostheses.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071181543&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85071181543&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICORR.2019.8779403
DO - 10.1109/ICORR.2019.8779403
M3 - Article
C2 - 31374741
AN - SCOPUS:85071181543
VL - 2019
SP - 880
EP - 885
JO - IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics
JF - IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics
SN - 1945-7898
ER -