Chiavenna Andrea, Scano Alessandro, Malosio Matteo, Molinari Tosatti Lorenzo, Molteni Franco
Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, National Research Council, Milan, Italy.
Rehabilitation Presidium of Valduce Hospital Villa Beretta, Lecco, Italy.
Appl Bionics Biomech. 2018 Jun 3;2018:7647562. doi: 10.1155/2018/7647562. eCollection 2018.
Exoskeleton devices for upper limb neurorehabilitation are one of the most exploited solutions for the recovery of lost motor functions. By providing weight support, passively compensated exoskeletons allow patients to experience upper limb training. Transparency is a desirable feature of exoskeletons that describes how the device alters free movements or interferes with spontaneous muscle patterns. A pilot study on healthy subjects was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of assessing transparency in the framework of muscle synergies. For such purpose, the LIGHTarm exoskeleton prototype was used. LIGHTarm provides gravity support to the upper limb during the execution of movements in the tridimensional workspace. Surface electromyography was acquired during the execution of three daily life movements (reaching, hand-to-mouth, and hand-to-nape) in three different conditions: free movement, exoskeleton-assisted (without gravity compensation), and exoskeleton-assisted (with gravity compensation) on healthy people. Preliminary results suggest that the muscle synergy framework may provide valuable assessment of user transparency and weight support features of devices aimed at rehabilitation.
用于上肢神经康复的外骨骼设备是恢复丧失运动功能最常用的解决方案之一。通过提供重量支撑，被动补偿外骨骼使患者能够体验上肢训练。透明度是外骨骼的一个理想特性，它描述了设备如何改变自由运动或干扰自发肌肉模式。进行了一项针对健康受试者的试点研究，以评估在肌肉协同作用框架内评估透明度的可行性。为此，使用了LIGHTarm外骨骼原型。LIGHTarm在三维工作空间中执行运动时为上肢提供重力支撑。在三种不同条件下，对健康人执行三种日常生活动作（伸手、手到嘴、手到颈背）时采集表面肌电图：自由运动、外骨骼辅助（无重力补偿）和外骨骼辅助（有重力补偿）。初步结果表明，肌肉协同作用框架可为旨在康复的设备的用户透明度和重量支撑特性提供有价值的评估。
