CHARACTERIZATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ARM

拟议的研究将探讨几个重要的问题，必须解决，以恢复涉及腕关节，肘关节和肩关节在C4-C7四肢瘫痪使用电刺激肌肉在这些关节的动作。 第一个问题是机械效应（例如，力）必须是已知的。 机器人操纵器将被用来实验性地确定在不同水平的刺激强度和空间中的各种手的位置由个人麻痹的肌肉在手上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的组合来刺激恢复指定的任务，因为不同的肌肉组合往往可以实现相同的行为。 要解决的第三个问题是如何指定所需的机械性能的运动，通过电刺激恢复。

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.