EAGER: Muscle Adaptation Induced by the Physical Interaction with an Exoskeleton and its Application to Motor-Task Planning for Neurorehabilitation

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The project provides a systematic means to modify the activity in a specific group of muscles by using a robot, which is expected to lead to wider diagnosis and treatment options for patients than conventional approaches which rely solely on therapists' knowledge and experience. This EAGER project tests this potentially transformative concept in a collaboration between Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) and two institutions in Japan, Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) and the University of Tokyo Hospital (U-Tokyo) through the support of NSF-JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) Strategic International Cooperative Program. The primary objective of the US-Japan collaborative research is to develop methodologies to computationally plan and execute various motor-tasks for neuromuscular function test by using an exoskeleton-type robot and quantitatively evaluate the efficacy by measuring various biosignals.The project produces results that are useful in rehabilitation science, robotics, physical therapy, neuro-muscular science, and athletic training. In addition, international collaboration with Japanese researchers exposes graduate students and faculty to the global research opportunities and capabilities. Moreover, results have the potential to significantly lower health care costs in these domains, which occur quite frequently in the aging population.