title: Engineering platform and experimental protocol for design and evaluation of a neurally-controlled powered transfemoral prosthesis.
abstract: To enable intuitive operation of powered artificial legs, an interface between user and prosthesis that can recognize the user's movement intent is desired. A novel neural-machine interface (NMI) based on neuromuscular-mechanical fusion developed in our previous study has demonstrated a great potential to accurately identify the intended movement of transfemoral amputees. However, this interface has not yet been integrated with a powered prosthetic leg for true neural control. This study aimed to report (1) a flexible platform to implement and optimize neural control of powered lower limb prosthesis and (2) an experimental setup and protocol to evaluate neural prosthesis control on patients with lower limb amputations. First a platform based on a PC and a visual programming environment were developed to implement the prosthesis control algorithms, including NMI training algorithm, NMI online testing algorithm, and intrinsic control algorithm. To demonstrate the function of this platform, in this study the NMI based on neuromuscular-mechanical fusion was hierarchically integrated with intrinsic control of a prototypical transfemoral prosthesis. One patient with a unilateral transfemoral amputation was recruited to evaluate our implemented neural controller when performing activities, such as standing, level-ground walking, ramp ascent, and ramp descent continuously in the laboratory. A novel experimental setup and protocol were developed in order to test the new prosthesis control safely and efficiently. The presented proof-of-concept platform and experimental setup and protocol could aid the future development and application of neurally-controlled powered artificial legs.
authors: Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University & University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
authors: Fan
authors: F
authors: Zhang
authors: Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University & University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
authors: Ming
authors: M
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of North Carolina School of Medicine; Atlantic Prosthetics & Orthotics, LLC.
authors: Stephen
authors: S
authors: Harper
authors: Atlantic Prosthetics & Orthotics, LLC.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Lee
authors: Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University & University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; hhuang11@ncsu.edu.
authors: He
authors: H
authors: Huang
mesh_terms: D000674:Amputees / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D001186:Artificial Limbs; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004576:Electromyography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012984:Software; D013848:Thigh / Q000294:innervation / Q000502:physiology; D016138:Walking / Q000502:physiology