Bilateral Manipulandum to Synthesize Ground Referenced and Interlimb Viscoelastic Loads.

摘要

The bilateral system was designed to study limb stiffness in different movement tasks. The mechatronics consists of two angular voice coil actuators (+/- 40 Nm) with embedded rotary (+/- 20 degrees) and torque sensors driven by voltage controlled current sources, DSP software routines to synthesize isotonic (preloads, stretches) as well as viscoelastic load schemes (Voigt model) were implemented for each sensor-actuator. The software further provides coupling of both sensor-actuators for interlimb loads as well as real- time video functions for experiment guidance. The system's performance was tested in forearm extensions against ground referenced and interlimb viscoelastic loads.