U.S.-Italy Cooperative Research: Dynamics of Human Locomotion and Motor Control

该奖项将支持范德比尔特大学的Richard Shiavi教授与意大利米兰生物工程中心的Antonio Pedotti教授的一项研究合作。这项研究的目的是结合两个中心的专业知识，以调查和分析人类的运动。研究人员计划为单一实验室环境开发几种步态分析程序，这些程序将利用当前的测量技术、分析程序和交互式图形界面。运动控制的广泛适应性使得两足运动具有极强的通用性，但同时也使其研究变得极为困难。根据所研究的步态的不同，需要结合肌电图、运动学和动态测量。Shiavi教授开发了几种分析肌肉活动的技术，而米兰的研究人员开发了分析运动动力学和研究运动控制的程序。通过结合这些技术和程序，研究人员打算开发并为研究人员和临床医生提供在步态评估中有用的定量分析工具。

This award will support Prof. Richard Shiavi of Vanderbilt University in a research collaboration with Prof. Antonio Pedotti of the Centro di Bioingegneria in Milan, Italy. The purpose of the research is to combine the expertise at both centers in order to investigate and analyze human locomotion. The researchers plan to develop several gait analysis procedures for a single laboratory environment that would utilize current measurement techniques, analytic procedures, and interactive graphical interfaces. The extensive adaptability of motor control of locomotion makes bipedal locomotion extremely versatile, but consequently, makes its investigation extremely difficult. Depending upon the aspect of gait being investigated, some combination of electromyographic, kinematic, and dynamic measurements are required. Prof. Shiavi has developed several techniques for analyzing muscle activity while researchers in Milan have developed procedures to analyze the dynamics of locomotion and study motor control. By combining these techniques and procedures, the researchers intend to develop and make available to researchers and clinicians quantitative analytic tools useful in gait evaluation.