CHARACTERIZATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ARM

拟议的研究将检查几个必须解决的重要问题，以便通过电刺激作用于C4-C7四肢瘫痪患者的手腕、肘关节和肩关节的肌肉来恢复这些关节的运动。第一个问题是，必须知道作用于这些关节的每块肌肉的单独刺激所产生的机械效应（例如，力）。机器人操纵器将用于实验确定单个瘫痪肌肉在不同刺激强度水平和不同空间手部位置时在手部产生的力和阻抗成分。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指定任务，因为不同的肌肉组合通常可以实现相同的行为。要解决的第三个问题是如何指定通过电刺激恢复运动所需的机械性能。

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.