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.
This EAGER project has developed new robotic systems to control the activity of individual arm muscles. This control is obtained through physical human-robot interaction. The project is expected to lead to greater diagnosis and treatment options for patients than conventional approaches that rely solely on therapists' knowledge and experience. These technologies are becoming increasingly important with aging world populations and the consequent increase in the incidence of ailments that compromise movement. The robots used in this study include a wearable robotic exoskeleton and a robotic arm for subjects to grip. These robots applied forces and torques on the arm joints or hand of each subject while the subject held a given arm position. The forces and torques were chosen to induce specific activity in target muscle as predicted by a mathematical muscle model. A variety of elbow and wrist muscles were targeted and simultaneously controlled. To verify how well the robots controlled target muscle activity, we monitored electromyography (EMG) and ultrasound elastography (measurement of muscle stiffness using sound waves). Electrical activity and stiffness increase as the muscle contraction increases. The goals of this study were to develop and assess these new systems and to compare results obtained via EMG and elastography. Results show that the robotic systems were both able to induce general desired changes (increase, decrease or hold) in target muscle activity, but require further work to increase the precision of muscle activity control. We also found that elastography data was less variable than EMG and had a stronger linear relationship with changing force. This project made progress toward the potentially transformative concept of robotic individual muscle control. This work was done through collaboration between Georgia Institute of Technology and three institutions in Japan, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo Hospital, and the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya. The primary objective of the US-Japan collaborative research was to develop methods to plan and execute various physical tasks and monitor related biological signals and physical properties. The project produced results that are applicable in rehabilitation science, robotics, physical therapy, neuro-muscular science, and athletic training. In addition, international collaboration with Japanese researchers allowed for a pooling of interdisciplinary expertise and resources and exposed graduate students and faculty to global research opportunities and diverse cultural experiences.
