CAREER: Dynamic Control of Immediate Locomotor Compensations in the Leg

“这项奖励是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。”这项为期5年的职业发展项目的主要目标是发现指导运动补偿的统一原则，并将这些科学原则整合到假肢和矫形学教育中。研究目标是锚定的中心假设，一套共同的关节补偿原则的基础上，整个腿的功能在运动过程中，即使面对不同的机械约束。这个项目将在乔治亚理工学院的比较神经力学实验室进行。使用控制良好的人类运动实验模型，研究人员将对运动任务（例如，肢体运动频率，幅度，足部放置精度）和任务期间的单个关节（例如，扭矩加载，运动范围限制，关节之间的机械耦合）施加机械约束。他们还将测试在运动过程中腿部的控制参数是否存在分层组织。本研究将从三个层面整合到义肢与矫形学教育中：(1)开发一个基于网络的教学模块，(2)开发一个独特的入门级义肢与矫形学硕士课程，(3)建立一个网站，促进基础研究与相关项目的整合。通过更好地理解大自然如何利用复杂系统中的冗余，实现这些项目目标将对科学和科学教育产生广泛的影响。这项工作的智力价值将是解决关于腿式运动的控制和补偿策略的基本问题，这些问题适用于跨约束类型和跨组织水平。补偿原则为理解正常、健康的人类运动如何适应不同的地形（如沥青、草地）、轻微损伤（如踝关节扭伤）和慢性疾病（如截肢、中风）提供了理论框架。科学和工程领域可以利用这些补偿原理来改进假肢和矫形器的设计，仿生机器人的控制和步态康复方法。通过有组织的外展和教育发展项目在当地开展的更广泛的影响是，它将有效地为将基础科学整合到假肢和矫形学的第一个研究生课程中搭建桥梁，这是一个历史上应用和临床导向的领域。

"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."The major objective of this 5-year CAREER Development project is to discover unifying principles that guide locomotor compensation and integrate these scientific principles into prosthetics and orthotics education. The research goal is anchored by a central hypothesis that a common set of joint compensation principles underlie whole leg function during locomotion even when faced with different mechanical constraints. This project will be performed in the Comparative Neuromechanics Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Using a well-controlled experimental model of human locomotion the investigators will place mechanical constraints on the locomotor task (e.g., limb movement frequency, amplitude, foot placement precision) and on individual joints during the task (e.g., torque loading, range of motion limitation, mechanical coupling between joints). They will also test whether there is a hierarchical organization to the control parameters of the leg during locomotion. This research will be integrated into prosthetics and orthotics education in three tiers: (1) development of a web-based teaching module, (2) curriculum development in a unique entry-level Master of Science in prosthetics and orthotics, and (3) a website to promote integration of basic research into related programs.Achieving these project goals will deliver broad impacts to science and science education through better understanding of how nature exploits redundancy in complex systems. The intellectual merit of this work will be to address basic questions about the control and compensatory strategies of legged locomotion that apply across constraint types and across organizational levels. The compensation principles provide a theoretical framework for understanding how normal, healthy human locomotion adapts to different terrains (e.g., asphalt, grass), minor injuries (e.g., ankle sprain) and chronic pathologies (e.g., leg amputation, stroke). Areas of science and engineering can then employ these compensation principles to improve prosthetic and orthotic design, control of biomimetic robots and gait rehabilitation methods. The broader impacts of acting locally through a structured program of outreach and education development are that it will effectively build a bridge for integrating basic science into the first graduate program in prosthetics and orthotics, a historically applied and clinically oriented field.