CHARACTERIZATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ARM

这项拟议的研究将探讨几个必须解决的重要问题，以便通过电刺激作用于这些关节的肌肉来恢复C4-C7四肢瘫痪患者的腕关节、肘关节和肩关节的运动。第一个问题是，必须知道作用于这些关节的每一块肌肉的单独刺激所产生的机械效应(例如，力)。机器人机械手将被用来实验确定不同刺激强度和不同手在空间中的不同位置时，各个瘫痪肌肉在手部产生的力和阻抗分量。第二个要解决的问题是如何最好地选择肌肉组合来刺激恢复特定的任务，因为不同的肌肉组合通常可以实现相同的行为。需要解决的第三个问题是如何为通过电刺激恢复的运动指定所需的机械特性。

The proposed study will examine several important issues which must be addressed in order to restore movements involving the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints in C4-C7 quadriplegics using electrical stimulation of the muscles acting at these joints. The first issue that the mechanical effects (e.g., force) produced by the individual stimulation of each muscle acting at these joints must be known. A robotic manipulator will be used to experimentally determine the force and impedance components produced at the hand by individual paralyzed muscles for different levels of stimulation intensity and for various hand locations in space. The second issue to be addressed is how to best select a combination of muscles to stimulate to restore a specified task, since different combinations of muscles can often achieve the same behavior. The third issue to be addressed is how to specify desirable mechanical properties for movements to be restored by electrical stimulation.