可穿戴上肢康复机器人的设计及其运动仿真和动力学分析

目的针对目前台式上肢康复机器人体积庞大、不便移动的缺点,设计了一款新型的可穿戴式上肢康复机器人,并通过对其运动特性的分析和关节力矩的计算,验证设计的合理性。方法首先,根据模块化设计原理,进行总体结构设计;然后,利用SOILDWORKS进行三维建模,并运用SOILDWORKS Motion对机器人肘关节屈曲/伸展运动、肩关节屈曲/伸展运动、肩肘关节联动运动进行运动仿真;最后,基于拉格朗日方法建立系统的动力学方程,并应用MATLAB软件计算得到机械臂关节力矩的变化曲线。结果仿真结果证实了肩关节、肘关节、腕关节运动仿真曲线平滑,动力学分析证实关节力矩变化曲线平滑且最大关节力矩均小于电机经减速后输出的额定转矩。结论该可穿戴式上肢康复机器人设计合理,为后续上肢康复机器人的研究奠定了理论基础。     

三维步态分析对下肢生物力学变化的重测信度研究

目的:观察健康人在步行过程中下肢运动学、动力学、地面反作用力以及表面肌电信号的重测信度。方法:采用VICON (NEXUS 1.8.5)三维步态分析系统及NORAXON无线表面肌电图测试13名健康人步行过程中下肢运动学、动力学、地面反作用力以及表面肌电信号的重测信度。采用组内相关系数(ICC)及测量标准误(SEM)比较两次测试结果的相对信度与绝对信度。结果:步行过程中步速、下肢运动学、动力学、地面反作用力以及表面肌电信号均具有良好的重测信度ICC 0.78～0.96,运动学参数测量标准误SEM%为4.18～15.6,动力学参数SEM%为3.31～21.82,地面反作用力SEM%为1.70～16.67,表面肌电信号SEM%为8.00～11.11。结论:三维步态分析系统结合表面肌电图可用于评估步行时下肢运动学、动力学、地面反作用力以及表面肌电信号,且具有良好的重测信度。     

Between-day repeatability of knee kinematics during functional tasks recorded using flexible electrogoniometry

The objective of this study was to assess the between-day repeatability of knee kinematics during activities of daily living recorded by electrogoniometry. One rater assessed the peak knee angles and knee excursion of 15 subjects during 13 activities twice with an average of 22 days (range 5-31) between the two assessments. The 15 subjects included four patients one year after total knee replacement (TKR) surgery, five patients before TKR surgery and six age-matched controls. Intra-class correlation coefficients and Bland and Altman coefficient of repeatability were derived to analyse the results. Only the most affected leg of the patients and the right leg of the controls were used for analysis. Different measures of repeatability showed different results. Intra-class correlation coefficients were higher than 0.75 for peak values of all functions except sitting down and rising from a standard chair. However, coefficients of repeatability ranged from 5.6 degrees for the loading response in level walking to 39.8 degrees for stepping out of a bath. Both of these values are higher than clinically significant changes seen after total knee surgery. It was concluded that for a single assessment on individual patients, the functional knee motion as performed in this study did not have sufficient repeatability. However, if the measurements are used to assess the average changes before and after surgery in a group of patients, the assessment of knee motion during activities such as level walking, and slope and stair ascending and descending were found to be sufficiently repeatable.     

Preoperative planning system for surgical robotics setup with kinematics and haptics

Recently, some useful robotic surgical systems have been developed and applied in many surgical situations. Systems such as the da Vinci surgical system of Intuitive Surgical Inc., which facilitates minimally invasive surgery with increased dexterity, are commercially available. Preoperative simulation and planning of surgical robot setups should accompany advanced robotic surgery if their advantages are to be further pursued. Feedback from the planning system will play an essential role in computer-aided robotic surgery in addition to preoperative detailed geometric information from patient CT/MRI images. Surgical robot setup simulation systems for appropriate trocar site placement have been developed especially for abdominal surgery. The motion of the surgical robot can be simulated and rehearsed with kinematic constraints at the trocar site, and the inverse-kinematics of the robot. Results from simulation using clinical patient data verify the effectiveness of the proposed system.     

Psychological,muscular and kinematic factors mediate performance under pressure

It is well established that performance is influenced by pressure, but the underlying mechanisms of the pressure‐performance relationship are poorly understood. To address this important issue, the current experiment evaluated psychological, physiological, and kinematic factors as mediators of the pressure‐performance relationship. Psychological, physiological, and kinematic responses to three levels of competitive pressure were measured in 23 males and 35 females during a golf putting task. Pressure manipulations impaired putting performance. Self‐reported anxiety, effort, and perceived pressure were increased. Heart rate, heart rate variability, muscle activity, and lateral clubhead acceleration were also elevated. Mediation analyses revealed that effort, muscle activity, and lateral acceleration partially mediated the decline in performance. Results confirmed that pressure elicits effects on performance through multiple pathways.     

The influence of muscle load on tibiofemoral knee kinematics

A comparative kinematics study was conducted on six cadaver limbs, comparing tibiofemoral kinematics in five conditions: unloaded, under a constant 130 N ankle load with a variable quadriceps load, with and without a simultaneous constant 50 N medial and lateral hamstrings load. Kinematics were described as translation of the projected centers of the medial (MFT) and lateral femoral condyles (LFT) in the horizontal plane of the tibia, and tibial axial rotation (TR) as a function of flexion angle. In passive conditions, the tibia rotated internally with increasing flexion to an average of −16° (range: −12/−20°, SD = 3.0°). Between 0 and 40° flexion, the medial condyle translated forwards 4 mm (range: 0.8/5.5 mm, SD = 2.5 mm), followed by a gradual posterior translation, totaling −9 mm (range: −5.8/−18.5 mm, SD = 4.9 mm) between 40–140° flexion. The lateral femoral condyle translated posteriorly with increasing flexion completing −25 mm (range: −22.6 to −28.2 mm, SD = 2.5 mm). Dynamic, loaded measurements simulating a deep knee bend were carried out in a knee rig. Under a fixed ankle load of 130 N and variable quadriceps loading, tibial rotation was inverted, mean TR = 4.7° (range: −3.3°/11.8° SD = 5.4°), MFT = −0.5 mm (range: = −4.3/2.4 mm, SD = 2.4 mm), LFT = 3.3 mm (range: = −3.6/10.6 mm, SD = 5.1 mm). Compared to the passive condition, all these excursions were significantly different (p ≤ 0.015). Adding medial and lateral hamstrings force of 50 N each reduced TR, MFT, and LFT significantly compared to the passive condition. In general, loading the knee with hamstrings and quadriceps reduces rotation and translation compared to the passive condition. Lateral hamstring action is more influential on knee kinematics than medial hamstrings action. © 2009 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 28:419–428, 2010     

Behavioural and anatomical analysis of selective tibial nerve branch transfer to the deep peroneal nerve in the rat

Nerve transfer procedures involving the repair of a distal denervated nerve element with that of a foreign proximal nerve have become increasingly popular for clinical nerve repair as a surgical alternative to autologous nerve grafting. However, the functional outcomes and the central plasticity for these procedures remain poorly defined, particularly for a clinically relevant rodent model of hindlimb nerve transfer. We therefore evaluated the effect of selective tibial branch nerve transfer on behavioural recovery in animals following acute transection of the deep peroneal nerve. The results indicate that not only can hindlimb nerve transfers be successfully accomplished in a rat model but that these animals display a return of skilled locomotor function on a par with animals that underwent direct deep peroneal nerve repair (the current gold standard). At 2 months, ground reaction force analysis demonstrated that partial restoration of braking forces occurred in the nerve transfer group, whereas the direct repair group had fully restored these forces to similar to baseline levels. Ankle kinematic analysis revealed that only animals in the direct repair group significantly recovered flexion during the step cycle, indicating a recovery of surgically induced foot drop. Terminal electrophysiological and myological assessments demonstrated similar levels of reinnervation, whereas retrograde labelling studies confirmed that the peroneal nerve‐innervated muscles were innervated by neurons from the tibial nerve pool in the nerve transfer group. Our results demonstrate a task‐dependent recovery process, where skilled locomotor recovery is similar between nerve transfer and direct repair animals, whereas flat surface locomotion is significantly better in direct repair animals.     

Measurement of condylar motion: a plea for the use of the condylar kinematic centre

In this study, a plea is given for the use of the kinematic centre in studies of the kinematics of the human temporomandibular condyle. The concept of the kinematic centre is based upon the assumption that the movements of the condyle-disc complex within the temporomandibular joint can reasonably well be described by those of a ball-shaped condyle-disc complex. The kinematic centre is then the centre of the sphere. Its movement traces have the advantage that they are smooth and have a good reproducibility between consecutive movements. Moreover, the open and close traces are just a few tenths of a millimetre apart and show no crossings. This makes the kinematic centre a suitable choice in order to avoid false-positive diagnoses in the study of internal derangements by means of condylar movement recordings. However, the kinematic centre has the disadvantage that the mandibular movements have to be recorded by rather complicated six degrees of freedom recording equipment and that the exploration algorithm for its location may sometimes have difficulties in finding the right location.     

A Spherical Rotation Coordinate System for the Description of Three-Dimensional Joint Rotations

Three-dimensional joint rotations in human movement analysis have been mainly described by Euler/Cardan angles. Due to sequence dependence, each combination of three Euler/Cardan angles defines a single pattern of joint rotation. When the rotation pattern is unknown, it needs to be considered using a particular sequence of Euler/Cardan angles to represent joint rotations. In this paper a spherical rotation coordinate system is developed for describing three-dimensional joint rotations using a method of rotation involving two steps: a long axis rotation and a pure axial rotation. Two angles of the classical spherical coordinate system--longitude and latitude--are used to describe long axis rotations in this newly proposed coordinate system. The spherical rotation coordinate system uses a radial rotation angle to describe pure axial rotation of a limb segment whereas the classical spherical coordinate system uses a radial displacement to describe motion of a point. An application of the spherical rotation coordinate system is given to define three-dimensional rotations of the glenohumeral joint. A mathematical proof shows that the long axis rotation and axial rotation are sequence independent. Two numerical examples are investigated which demonstrate that the spherical rotation angles can be uniquely determined in both forward and inverse kinematics without considering sequences rotations.