EFRI-M3C: A Hybrid Control Systems Approach to Brain-Machine Interfaces for Exoskeleton Control

这项跨学科的研究提案汇集了神经生理学和脑机接口(BMI)、控制系统和外骨骼设计领域的领导者，以显著提高我们对涉及与世界物理交互的场景中神经控制运动的基本原则的理解。此外，这项工作将改变神经假体系统，以提高大量神经科患者的生活质量。这一提议的核心问题是：大脑是否使用运动程序来帮助它控制高度冗余的多自由度(DOF)生物机械装置，如手臂？为了回答这个问题，这个项目将进行一系列实验，需要在实验(BMI)、理论(混合控制)和技术(外骨骼设计)层面结合三项主要创新。这一提议旨在将这三项创新综合成一种新的实验范式，将大脑、生物力学和行为统一起来。具体地说，猕猴运动皮质中视觉提示的运动计划将是：1)由BMI读取，2)由混合控制器和肌肉骨骼模型解释，3)转化为多自由度上肢外骨骼的适当运动和僵硬。智力价值在社会层面上，这项建议寻求在神经假体系统方面取得重大进展，以改善因中枢神经系统损伤或其他神经疾病而瘫痪的患者的生活质量。BMI将在与真实对象交互时提供可靠的性能，并在真实世界的场景中提供可靠的性能，从而对神经科患者的生活质量产生重大影响。这一建议还通过提出一个新的框架来研究神经集成如何通过在现实世界任务中通过对神经活动的意志调节来学习控制多自由度外骨骼，从而为运动系统神经科学提供了信息。它通过一种新颖的分层分布式控制方案提供了神经事件和真实世界动力学之间的关键联系，该方案用于混合系统的辨识和控制，该方案捕获了手臂/外骨骼的连续时间演化以及动态变化的任务序列。在BMI系统中，从来没有出现过这种复杂的运动任务。拟议工作的潜在影响是巨大的。如果成功，这项工作将改变我们对大脑如何控制运动的理解，并将在下一代神经假体的开发中引入范式转变，将恢复数百万神经受损患者的运动功能？这一发展可能会很好地影响其他领域，如人机交互和创新的用户界面。更广泛的影响这个项目的数据和研究成果的传播将通过一个项目网站进行。我们的代码将是开源的，方法、算法和结果将通过神经科学、控制和机器人领域的出版物提供。通过位于伯克利的社会利益信息技术研究中心(CITRIS)，该计划的研究成果将立即被获取并分发给大型工程社区，特别是其他跨学科研究小组。此外，拟议研究中的发现将通过加州大学伯克利分校和劳伦斯科学馆(LHS)的各种活动，如CAL-DAY，向K-12学生及其家长传播。此外，研究成果将通过神经科学、机器人、控制和生物医学工程方面的主要年度会议的研讨会进行传播。这项建议的教育部分依赖于BMI作为科学和工程跨学科教育的平台。将推出新的研究生课程，并将根据该项目的成果加强现有课程。拟议中的努力将为神经科学家、控制理论家和机器人专家之间的学生轮换打开大门。除了博士后和研究生，本科生还将参与该项目的所有方面：建模、分析、仿真、原型开发和实验。将特别努力从包括妇女在内的任职人数不足的群体中招聘个人，从而在这方面的良好记录的基础上再接再厉。

This interdisciplinary research proposal brings together leaders in neurophysiology and brain-machine interfaces (BMI), control systems, and exoskeleton design to significantly advance our understanding of fundamental principles in the neural control of movement in scenarios that involve physical interactions with the world. Furthermore, this work will transform neuroprosthetic systems to improve the quality of life for a large number of neurological patients. The central question that motivates this proposal is: Does the brain use motor programs to help it control a highly redundant multi-degree of freedom (DOF) biomechanical plant such as the arm? To answer this question, this project will conduct a series of experiments that require a combination of three major innovations at the experimental (BMI), theoretical (hybrid control), and technical (exoskeleton design) level. This proposal aims to synthesize all three innovations into a new experimental paradigm unifying brain, biomechanics, and behavior. Specifically, visually-cued motor plans in the motor cortices of macaque monkeys will be: 1) read by a BMI, 2) interpreted by a hybrid controller and a musculoskeletal model, and 3) translated into appropriate movements and stiffness in a multi-DOF upper-limb exoskeleton. Intellectual MeritAt a societal level, this proposal seeks to create a significant advancement in neuroprosthetic systems to improve the quality of life of patients suffering from paralysis due to lesions of the central nervous system or other neurological disorders. BMIs will make a great impact in the quality of life for neurological patients by providing reliable performance when interacting with real objects and in real-world scenarios. This proposal also informs motor systems neuroscience by proposing a novel framework to study how neural ensembles can learn to control a multi-DOF exoskeleton by volitional modulation of neural activity in real-world tasks. It provides a critical link between neural events and real-world dynamics through a novel hierarchical distributed control scheme for hybrid systems identification and control that captures the continuous time evolution of the arm/exoskeleton, as well as the dynamically changing sequence of tasks. No motor task of this complexity has ever been demonstrated in a BMI system. The potential impact of the proposed work is immense. If successful, this work will transform our understanding about how the brain controls movement, and will introduce a paradigm shift in the development of the next generation of neural prosthetics that will restore motor function in millions of neurologically impaired patients ? a development which may very well impact other domains such as human-machine interaction and innovative user interfaces. Broader ImpactThe dissemination of data and research findings from this project will be done through a project website. Our codes will be open source, and the methods, algorithms and results will be available through publications in the fields of neuroscience, control and robotics. Through the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at Berkeley, research results from this program will be immediately accessible and distributed to a large engineering community, in particular other interdisciplinary research groups. Also, the findings in the proposed research will be outreached to K-12 students and their parents through various activities at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS), such as CAL-day. In addition, research findings will be disseminated through workshops at the main annual conferences in neuroscience, robotics, control, and biomedical engineering. The educational component of this proposal relies on BMI as a platform for interdisciplinary education in science and engineering. New graduate-level courses will be introduced and existing courses will be enhanced based on results of this project. The proposed efforts will open doors to student rotations between neuroscientists, control theorists and roboticists. In addition to postdocs and graduate students, undergraduate students will participate in all aspects of the project: modeling, analysis, simulation, prototype development and experimentation. Special effort will be placed on the recruitment of individuals from underrepresented groups including women, thereby building on the strong record the PIs have in this area.