TY - GEN
T1 - Leg muscle activation evoked by floor stiffness perturbations
T2 - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2015
AU - Skidmore, Jeffrey
AU - Artemiadis, Panagiotis
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.
PY - 2015/6/29
Y1 - 2015/6/29
N2 - Robotic devices have been used in a variety of rehabilitation protocols, including gait rehabilitation after stroke. However, robotic intervention in gait therapy has only produced moderate results compared to conventional physiotherapy. We suggest a novel approach to robotic interventions which takes advantage of inter-limb coordination mechanisms. We hypothesize the existence of a mechanism of inter-leg coordination that may remain intact after a hemiplegic stroke that may be utilized to obtain functional improvement of the impaired leg. One of the most significant advantages of this approach is the safety of the patient, since this does not require any direct manipulation of the impaired leg. In this paper, we focus on designing and applying unilateral perturbations that evoke contralateral leg motions through mechanisms of inter-leg coordination. Real-time control of floor stiffness is utilized to uniquely differentiate force and kinematic feedback, creating novel perturbations. We present results of repeatable and scalable evoked muscle activity of the contralateral tibialis anterior muscle through unilateral stiffness perturbations. We also present a mathematical model that accurately describes the relationship between the magnitude of the stiffness perturbation and the evoked muscle activity, that could result in model-based rehabilitation strategies for impaired walkers. The novel methods and results presented in this paper set the foundation for a paradigm shift of robotic interventions for gait rehabilitation.
AB - Robotic devices have been used in a variety of rehabilitation protocols, including gait rehabilitation after stroke. However, robotic intervention in gait therapy has only produced moderate results compared to conventional physiotherapy. We suggest a novel approach to robotic interventions which takes advantage of inter-limb coordination mechanisms. We hypothesize the existence of a mechanism of inter-leg coordination that may remain intact after a hemiplegic stroke that may be utilized to obtain functional improvement of the impaired leg. One of the most significant advantages of this approach is the safety of the patient, since this does not require any direct manipulation of the impaired leg. In this paper, we focus on designing and applying unilateral perturbations that evoke contralateral leg motions through mechanisms of inter-leg coordination. Real-time control of floor stiffness is utilized to uniquely differentiate force and kinematic feedback, creating novel perturbations. We present results of repeatable and scalable evoked muscle activity of the contralateral tibialis anterior muscle through unilateral stiffness perturbations. We also present a mathematical model that accurately describes the relationship between the magnitude of the stiffness perturbation and the evoked muscle activity, that could result in model-based rehabilitation strategies for impaired walkers. The novel methods and results presented in this paper set the foundation for a paradigm shift of robotic interventions for gait rehabilitation.
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U2 - 10.1109/ICRA.2015.7140107
DO - 10.1109/ICRA.2015.7140107
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84938264334
T3 - Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
SP - 6463
EP - 6468
BT - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2015
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 26 May 2015 through 30 May 2015
ER -