The Engineering Foundation conference on Biomechanics and the Neural Control of Movement will be held on July 26-31, 1991, at the YMCA of the Ozarks, Potosi, MO, and will address the theme Movement in Relation to set and Posture. This is the eighth in a series (since 1967) of biennial (or triennial) conferences whose overall intent is to increase the level of interaction between engineering- and life scientists to the mutual benefit of both. For example, there is progressively increasing evidence that the study of the control of movement in physical systems is benefitted by consideration of animal solutions to the problems of the control of movement. Similarly, the analysis of such animal solutions has benefitted from the rigor characteristic of the analysis of physical systems. As in all previous conferences, the meeting will bring together a near-equal mixture of life- and physical- scientists, from such seemingly diverse backgrounds as anatomy, biomechanics, clinical neurophysiology, control theory, electrical engineering, kinesiology, limb prosthetics, mechanical engineering, neuroscience, robotics, and physiology. The Potosi (previously called Henniker) conferences provide a unique forum for bringing together investigators who can seldom assemble for analogous intellectual exchange in other venues, nor are the other venues as conducive for interaction and subsequent collaboration. It is well known that these conferences have had a major international impact on research and training in the study of movement, both in the animal kingdom and the world of physical systems. The eighth conference takes cognizance of the growing recognition that high-level commands for movement need not have a one-to-one relationship with the commands to the actuators. The latter are influenced remarkably by the """"""""set"""""""" (i.e., the sensitivity of low-level control modules to high- level commands and to feedback) and """"""""posture"""""""" (i.e., initial forces and configuration of the segments). Thus, this conference will examine the proposition that the study of movement can not be disassociated, as it often has been in the past, from the influence of set and posture, whether in living organisms or in robots.
