Journal
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING
Volume 29, Issue -, Pages 1424-1431Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/TNSRE.2021.3097301
Keywords
Force; Perturbation methods; Pelvis; Belts; Robots; Muscles; Kinematics; Assistive robotic forces; center of pressure; EMG; handrail; kinematics; perturbations
Categories
Funding
- New York State Spinal Cord Injury [C31290GG]
- New York State Spinal Cord Injury Research Board Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
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The study used RobUST to deliver trunk perturbations and pelvic assistive support in 10 healthy adults, showing that pelvic support could reduce kinematic and COP excursions during standing without decreasing muscle activity or ground reaction forces. The highest level of postural stability was observed when participants used a handrail and received pelvic assistive forces.
In people with severe neuromotor deficits of trunk and lower extremities, regaining balance in standing is often performed in rehabilitation with manual assistance, rigid body supports or by the use of handrails. To investigate and further expand postural control training in standing, we developed a Robotic Upright Stand Trainer (RobUST). In this study, we used RobUST to deliver trunk perturbations while simultaneously providing postural assistive forces on the pelvis in 10 able-bodied adults. Posture control responses with 'pelvic support' was then compared to 'no support' and 'hand supported' standing, with and without assistance from RobUST. We characterize postural imbalance with kinematic displacements and center of pressure (COP) outcomes, such as amplitude and root mean square of the excursions of COP. Surface electromyography (sEMG) was also applied to investigate muscle control. We additionally investigated ground reaction and handrail forces during standing to analyze how postural strategies and muscle mechanisms with 'pelvic support' via RobUST would differ from standing with 'no support' and with the 'handrail support'. Our results show that during perturbations, pelvic assistive support decreased kinematic and COP excursions compared to standing with no support. The pelvic assistance from RobUST showed similar level of COP changes as the use of handrail support but without reducing muscle activity or ground reaction forces. As expected, the maximum level of postural stability was observed when participants used the handrail and received pelvic assistive forces. In conclusion, RobUST demonstrates potential as a training device since it enhances postural balance without significantly removing muscular control mechanisms that are of interest in re-training postural control strategies in standing.
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