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

该项目提供了一种系统的方法，通过使用机器人来改变特定肌肉群的活动，这有望为患者带来更广泛的诊断和治疗选择，而不是仅仅依赖治疗师的知识和经验的传统方法。在NSF-JST（日本科学技术机构）战略国际合作计划的支持下，乔治亚理工学院（GT）和日本的两个机构奈良科学技术研究所（NAIST）和东京大学医院（U-Tokyo）合作，这个EAGER项目测试了这一潜在的变革概念。美日合作研究的主要目标是开发利用外骨骼型机器人计算计划和执行神经肌肉功能测试的各种运动任务的方法，并通过测量各种生物信号定量评估其功效。该项目产生的成果对康复科学、机器人、物理治疗、神经肌肉科学和运动训练都很有用。此外，与日本研究人员的国际合作使研究生和教师能够接触到全球研究机会和能力。此外，结果有可能显著降低这些领域的医疗保健费用，这在老龄化人口中经常发生。

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.