Functional hand and wrist motion control using functional electrical stimulation electrode arrays

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This research programme will develop wearable technology that assists stroke patients in their activities of daily living. In recent years functional electrical stimulation (FES) electrode arrays have been developed by several institutions, but control systems have failed to capitalise on their potential to assist the complex hand movements that are needed to perform everyday tasks. This presents an enormous unmet need since 80% of stroke survivors suffer from upper limb impairment and stroke prevalence in the UK is due to rise to more than 2 million people. Effective control strategies for FES arrays can therefore substantially improve the rehabilitation of patients suffering from upper-limb impairmentsThis project will develop the theory of multiple model switched adaptive control (MMSAC) and apply it to control FES arrays. This potentially will enable a highly accurate model based controller to be used, while eliminating the need for identification and manual tuning. An additional extension to the framework will automatically capture the user's voluntary intension by predicting the way in which a patient wishes to carry out a particular motion and provide assistance as required. This project will firstly develop a design framework enabling MMSAC to be applied to arrays, and then investigate approaches to reduce the underlying set of elements (the subspace). It will then carry out trials at with patients at Berkshire Hospital to test the effectiveness.