4.6 Article

Handlebar Robotic System for Bimanual Motor Control and Learning Research

Journal

SENSORS
Volume 21, Issue 18, Pages -

Publisher

MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/s21185991

Keywords

bimanual coordination; motor learning; motor control; robotic handlebar; robotic training

Funding

  1. Newton Funding (The Royal Society) [NA140231]
  2. Office of Naval Research Global (ONR-G) [62909141246]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This study introduces a bimanual robotic device for motor control and learning research. Experiment results indicate that with practice, movement velocity decreases, reaction time increases, and prehension force decreases.
Robotic devices can be used for motor control and learning research. In this work, we present the construction, modeling and experimental validation of a bimanual robotic device. We tested some hypotheses that may help to better understand the motor learning processes involved in the interlimb coordination function. The system emulates a bicycle handlebar with rotational motion, thus requiring bilateral upper limb control and a coordinated sequence of joint sub-movements. The robotic handlebar is compact and portable and can register in a fast rate both position and forces independently from arms, including prehension forces. An impedance control system was implemented in order to promote a safer environment for human interaction and the system is able to generate force fields, suitable for implementing motor learning paradigms. The novelty of the system is the decoupling of prehension and manipulation forces of each hand, thus paving the way for the investigation of hand dominance function in a bimanual task. Experiments were conducted with ten healthy subjects, kinematic and dynamic variables were measured during a rotational set of movements. Statistical analyses showed that movement velocity decreased with practice along with an increase in reaction time. This suggests an increase of the task planning time. Prehension force decreased with practice. However, an unexpected result was that the dominant hand did not lead the bimanual task, but helped to correct the movement, suggesting different roles for each hand during a cooperative bimanual task.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.6
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available