Citation

Bassi Luciani L, Genovese V, Monaco V, Odetti L, Cattin E, Micera S. J. Neuroengineering Rehabil. 2012; 9(1): 51.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/1743-0003-9-51

PMID

22838638

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Studying the responses in human behaviour to external perturbations during daily motor tasks is of key importance for understanding mechanisms leading balance control and for investigating the functional response of targeted subjects. Experimental platforms as far developed entail a low number of perturbations and, only in few cases, have been designed to measure variables used at run time to trigger events during a certain motor task. METHODS: This work introduces a new mechatronic device, named SENLY, that provides balance perturbations while subjects carry out daily motor tasks (e.g., walking, upright stance). SENLY mainly consists of two independently-controlled treadmills that destabilize balance control perturbing the walkway in horizontal directions. It is also provided with force sensors, which can be used at run time to identify and trigger events along the gait cycle. The paper also describes the customized procedures adopted to calibrate the platform and the first testing trials aimed at evaluating its performance. RESULTS: SENLY allows measure both vertical ground reaction forces and their related location more precisely and more accurately than other platforms of the same size. Moreover, kinematic and kinetic performance of the platform meet all required specifications. CONCLUSION: This paper presents the design and development of a new perturbing platform able to reproduce different slipping paradigms while measuring GRFs at run time in order to enable the asynchronous triggering during the gait cycle. Calibration procedures and pilot tests show that SENLY allows to suitably estimate the dynamical features of the load and to standardize experimental sessions, improving the efficacy of functional analysis.

Language: en