Thesis Project Form

Robots are currently used to enable stroke survivors to perform intensive training under the influence of assistive forces. However, present-generation devices only use simple, fixed strategies, with little or no account for the patient’s residual functions.

The goal of this thesis project is to develop a myoelectric control module that uses a detailed neuromusculoskeletal model to reliably estimate muscle force in real-time, from recorded muscle activity (EMG) and body movements. The module will be used in conjunction with a robot to generate perturbations and/or assistive forces that are directly controlled by the user and directly account for type and modalities of his/her voluntary control.
The work will have a technical part (design and implementation of the myocontroller, development of suitable calibration procedures to identify model parameters for an individual user) and an experimental part in which we will investigate how humans modify their performance (movements, muscle activity) in presence of EMG-driven perturbations.

−Real-time control of robot devices and development of myoelectric controller using Matlab/Smiling
−Conducting experiments with healthy subjects
−Analysis of movement data with Matlab