Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
I.
INTRODUCTION
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17th IEEE Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference, Beirut, Lebanon, 13-16 April 2014.
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17th IEEE Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference, Beirut, Lebanon, 13-16 April 2014.
III.
Over the past 20 years, research in the field of braincomputer interface has been increasing almost
exponentially, driven by advances in understanding of brain
function and the evolution of computers and sensors.
BCI is an effective way to augment human capabilities by
providing a new interaction link with the outside world and
is particularly relevant as an aid for disabled people.
In recent years, BCI research is exploring many
applications in different fields related to AT, including
communication [29], environmental control [30], and
robotics and mobility [31-35].
However, no sufficiently usable and robust BCI solution
addresses the needs of people with severe physical
disabilities. BrainControl (see Figure 1) is the worlds first
commercial available BCI that is usable by people who
cannot move any muscles or communicate, but who are
consciously aware, a state called locked-in or apparent
coma. It is a BCI platform that allows people suffering
from pathologies such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
(ALS), Multiple Sclerosis, tetraplegia and various kinds of
muscular dystrophies, to overcome severe physical and
communicative disabilities (3.7 million people worldwide).
In particular, BrainControl can help patients suffering from
diseases that paralyze the whole body or parts of the body,
but who retain their intellectual abilities.
limb weakness
slower
evolution
rapid
progression
Respiratory onset
Intercostals muscle
weakness
rapid
progression
fronto-temporal
dementia onset
mild/rapid
progression
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1.
The main percentage of the power is necessary to
move the right and left knee pitches.
2.
As well, the others legs pitches related to the ankle
and the hip can play an important role in an energy
recovering system.
3.
Figure 1. BrainControl.
IV.
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17th IEEE Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference, Beirut, Lebanon, 13-16 April 2014.
Almost the same considerations made for the kneestretched mode can be repeated of a knee-bended walking
motion. The data are related to a gait of 4 steps with the
knee bended with a degree of -50 degrees (where 0 degree is
the stretched position).
Figure 3. Graphs related to the ankle (left), knee (center) and hip (right)
pitch joints of the right leg during a knee-stretched forward gait.
Anyway, as it can be easily seen, both in case of bentknee or stretched-knee walking, the energy consumption is
quite reduced, with pattern similar to the human one and
some region of high joint power, on the pitch joints of both
legs, that can be easily used for some strategy of energy
recovering, increasing the autonomy of these robotic
artifacts.
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REFERENCES
[1]
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[31]
[32]
[33]
[34]
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