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In this paper a new protocol for vibro-tactile robotic rehabilitation is proposed that combines the usage of vibrations with robotic movement assistance to augment rehabilitation outcomes for patients with spasticity. A simple protocol is proposed for focal vibration timing and position in respect to the muscle in order to accomplish the best muscle performance outcome. The results show an increase...
Exoskeletons have been used successfully for functional training of human motions. Our designs of the Cable-driven Arm Exoskeleton (CAREX) are targeted to improve arm function in patients with stroke. In this study, we focus on how muscle activation patterns of subjects change during movements with and without CAREX. Our goal was to evaluate whether CAREX distorts the natural pattern of EMG activity...
Due to the growing field of neuro-prosthetics and other brain-machine interfaces that employ human-like control schemes, it has become a priority to design sensor and actuation mechanisms that relay tactile information to the user. Unfortunately, most state of the art technology uses feedback techniques that are invasive, costly or inefficient for the general population. This paper proposes a feasible...
In this study, a novel method for estimating wrist forces from surface electromyogram (EMG) measured from the upper limb is proposed, which can be applied for unilateral transradial amputees. Three degrees of freedom (DoFs) of wrist including flexion-extension, abduction-adduction, and pronation-supination were used. We first classify feature vectors extracted from the EMG signals into three classes...
the prediction of finger pinch force via surface electromyography (sEMG) signals is important in bionic control area. The purpose of this paper was to study how to improve the prediction accuracy while using support vector regression (SVR) to predict the pinch force. Four healthy subjects performed constant-posture force-varying pinch operations. The sEMG signal was acquired using two electrodes while...
Electromyography (EMG) is the gold-standard technique used for the evaluation of muscle activity and contraction. The EMG signal supports analysis of a number of important parameters including amplitude and duration, engagement of motor units, and functional characteristics associated with factors such a force production and fatigue. Recently, a novel measurement method (Laser Doppler Myography, LDM)...
System identification is an important tool to investigate human motion control. The goal of this study was to identify and address issues in system identification for human motor control and to investigate if linear time invariant system identification techniques are applicable to recorded mechanical and physiological data. During a posture maintenance experiment subjects had to minimize the deviations...
Biomechanical investigation of human movement contributing to rehabilitation treatment has gained an increasing interest from researchers on regards to human impairments and assistive techniques. There are many methods of treatment previously investigated namely with the focus being towards the nervous system. Due to the advancement of technology over time, motion capture became possible where it...
To assist the walk of the physically weak people is important to increase their quality of life because it can expand their activity area. We present a soft wearable knee extensor, called Knee Tendon-suit, which assist the knee extension during climbing stairs. To achieve our goal, we used the tendon-driven mechanism for transmitting the actuation force and the anchor structure for transmitting the...
Electronic systems based on body area networks can be used to monitor sports performance. These systems use sensors to acquire signals from the athlete while performing the exercises, and a communication system to transmit the data to a computer or smart phone to analyze it. That information can be used to evaluate sport performance quantitatively, prevent and treat injuries, and design personalized...
Current control strategies in physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) face some limitations: endpoint stiffness level is not directly measurable in typical haptic control situations and the bilateral nature of the interaction requires proper treatment of operator dynamics. These limitations have reduced current control approaches to estimation techniques based on correlated metrics, such as electromyographic...
In this study, we analyze physiological information of facial electromyography and respiration using a force display system of a virtual arm wrestling system. We found that facial expressions under transient cessation of respiration during muscle strain are characterized by tension of the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscles. In addition, facial expressions of laughter, anger, and fear,...
It is important to close the control loop by providing tactile feedback to prosthesis users. An increasing number of researchers attempt to improve grasping performance by providing various types of tactile feedbacks. In our study, we improve the performance by a virtual environment in which subjects acquire two key grasping-related properties, including object's stiffness, economically holding power...
A pilot investigation was conducted on the measurement of muscle performance during voluntary exercise using a novel mechanomyogram muscle contraction sensor quantifying muscle tension — the MC-Sensor (TMG-BMC Ltd. Ljubljana, Slovenia). Surface electromyography (sEMG) and the torque output from an isokinetic dynamometer were used as reference for comparative assessment of the MC-sensor data. Five...
The present work shows a preliminary study conducted using Vibromyography (VMG) sensor and Electromyography (EMG) sensor with the help of Biodex system on evaluating muscle performances. Surface EMG and Biodex torque are set as reference signal to be compared with VMG signal obtained from the experiment. A total of 5 healthy subjects performed isokinetic knee extension exercise at the speed of 90...
The rectification of EMG signals is a preprocessing method widely used for inferring neural connectivity by coherence analysis. The assumption for the use of this non-linear operator is that it enhances the neural information in the signal, i.e. the motor unit spike trains. However, because of non-linearity, it is difficult to predict the effect of rectification on the EMG power spectrum. In this...
Estimation of force output generated by human muscle is an essential routine of clinical rehabilitation assessment, and could provide considerable insight into rehabilitation, motor control and robotics. Indirect methods for the estimation of force output could be helpful when a bulky and expensive dynamometer is not on hand. Electromyography has been used in previous studies to quantify it in the...
Though many studies indicated that the behavior of single muscle was different between contraction and relaxation, the effect of contraction history profile on multiple muscles has not been investigated. In this study, we analyzed the influence of contraction history on the coordination patterns of hand muscles during a three-digit force production task. The effects of the contraction and relaxation...
As the field of brain-machine interfaces and neuro-prosthetics continues to grow, there is a high need for sensor and actuation mechanisms that can provide haptic feedback to the user. Current technologies employ expensive, invasive and often inefficient force feedback methods, resulting in an unrealistic solution for individuals who rely on these devices. This paper responds through the development,...
An automated hand-forearm ergometer with realtime data analysis would be a helpful tool to evaluate muscle fatigue mid-experiment, offering insights into changes in electromyogram parameters that can be used to track fatigue in the hand and forearm musculature. This work presents real-time additions to a custom, automated hand-forearm ergometer that will perform mid-experiment signal processing and...
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