A Neuromechanical-Robotic Approach to Control Pathological Tremor in Upper Limbs

全世界数百万人患有病理性震颤，这大大降低了他们的生活质量。迄今为止，病理性震颤还没有永久性的治疗方法。现有的治疗方法，如手术和药物治疗可能是昂贵的。它们也可能是侵入性的，并伴有副作用。该项目的目的是开发和实施一种具有成本效益和人体工程学的可穿戴外骨骼，以减轻震颤并为震颤患者提供运动辅助。该项目的更广泛影响包括改善病理性震颤患者的生活质量，纳入来自代表性不足群体的学生，指导和培训本科生和研究生，并将研究成果整合到课堂材料中。拟议技术的发展将集中在新颖的神经肌肉骨骼分析，可穿戴外骨骼和人机协作控制理论，以及将它们整合到康复外骨骼中以减轻震颤。主要目的是获得震颤相关的身体运动，皮质信号和神经肌肉信号之间的相互作用的基本理解。第二个目标是开发一个紧凑的康复设备嵌入一个强大的自适应控制器，以抑制震颤，并协助日常生活中的运动。 为了实现这些目标，研究小组将进行理论，计算和实验分析的结合，以研究震颤的动力学。将开发基于模型的最佳控制框架，用于缓解震颤和运动辅助，并将设计和制造可穿戴外骨骼，用于对震颤患者进行实验。该项目的预期影响包括对病理性震颤动力学的基本理解，这进一步促进了由新型实时震颤建模和协作控制算法授权的更好外骨骼的开发。所提出的框架将适合外骨骼设计，不仅用于缓解震颤，而且用于其他康复目标。为震颤建模和协同控制提出的通用方法也将提供适用于其他机器人领域的解决方案。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Millions of people around the world suffer from pathological tremors, which significantly reduce the quality of their lives. To date, there is no permanent cure to pathological tremors. Existing treatments such as surgery and medications can be expensive. They can also be invasive and come with side effects. The aim of this project is to develop and implement a cost-effective and ergonomic wearable exoskeleton to mitigate tremors and provide movement assistance to tremor patients. The broader impacts of the project include improvement in the quality of life of patients suffering from pathological tremors, the inclusion of students from underrepresented groups, mentoring and training of undergraduate and graduate students, and integration of the research findings into classroom materials.The development of the proposed technology will focus on novel neuromusculoskeletal analyses, wearable exoskeletons, and human-robot cooperative control theories, as well as their integration into rehabilitation exoskeletons for tremor alleviation. The primary objective is to gain a fundamental understanding of the interplay between tremor-related physical movements, cortical signals, and neuromuscular signals. The secondary objective is to develop a compact rehabilitation device embedded with a robust adaptive controller to suppress tremors and assist movement in daily life. To pursue these objectives, the research team will conduct a combination of theoretical, computational, and experimental analyses to investigate the dynamics of tremor. A model-based optimal control framework will be developed for tremor alleviation and movement assistance, and a wearable exoskeleton will be designed and manufactured for conducting experiments on tremor patients. The anticipated impacts of this project include a fundamental understanding of pathological tremor dynamics that furthers the development of better exoskeletons empowered by novel real-time tremor modeling and cooperative control algorithms. The proposed framework will suit exoskeletons designed not only for tremor alleviation, but also for other rehabilitation goals. The generic methods proposed for tremor modeling and cooperative control will also provide solutions applicable to other fields of robotics.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.