1,720,965 research outputs found
Ageing involves wider spectral bandwidth and greater amplitude of EMG signals during walking
No full textThe SSSA-MyHand: a dexterous lightweight myoelectric hand prosthesis
No full textThe replacement of a missing hand by a prosthesis is one of the most fascinating challenges in rehabilitation engineering. State of art prostheses are curtailed by the physical features of the hand, like poor functionality and excessive weight. Here we present a new multi-grasp hand aimed at overcoming such limitations. The SSSA-MyHand builds around a novel transmission mechanism that implements a semi-independent actuation of the abduction/adduction of the thumb and of the flexion/extension of the index, by means of a single actuator. Thus, with only three electric motors the hand is capable to perform most of the grasps and gestures useful in activities of daily living, akin commercial prostheses with up to six actuators, albeit it is as lightweight as conventional 1-Degrees of Freedom prostheses. The hand integrates position and force sensors and an embedded controller that implements automatic grasps and allows inter-operability with different human-machine interfaces. We present the requirements, the design rationale of the first prototype and the evaluation of its performance. The weight (478 g), force (31 N maximum force at the thumb fingertip) and speed of the hand (closing time: <370 ms), make this new design an interesting alternative to clinically available multi-grasp prostheses
Features of the EMG patterns during walking in young and elderly people: Preliminary study
No full textAge-related modifications of muscle synergies and spinal cord activity during locomotion
No full textRecent findings have shown that neural circuits located in the spinal cord drive muscular activations during locomotion while intermediating between descending signals and peripheral sensory information. This relationship could be modified by the natural aging process. To address this issue, the activity of twelve ipsilateral leg muscles was analyzed in young and elderly people (7 subjects per group) while walking at six different cadences (40-140 steps/min). These signals were used to extract synergies underlying muscle activation and to map the motoneuronal activity of the pools belonging to the lumbosacral enlargement (L2-S2). The comparison between the two groups showed that neither temporal patterning of motor primitives nor muscles loading synergies seemed to be significantly affected by aging. Conversely, as the cadence increased, spinal maps differ significantly between the groups, showing higher and scattered activity during the whole gait cycle in elders and well defined bursts in young subjects. The results suggested that motor primitives lead the synchronization of muscle activation mainly depending on the biomechanical demand of the locomotion; hence, they are not significantly affected by aging. Nevertheless, at the spinal cord level, biomechanical requirements, peripheral afference and descending inputs are differently integrated between the two groups, probably reflecting age-related changes of both nervous system and motor control strategies during locomotion
Muscle Synergies during walking: comparison between young and elderly people. Preliminary results
No full textPreliminary results on the design of a tool for inserting of transverse intrafascicular multichannel electrodes (TIME) into the peripheral nervous system
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Dispositivo automatizzato per la riabilitazione motoria e per la valutazione della funzionalità degli arti anteriori in modelli animali
No full textMETHOD FOR TESTING THE BRAKING CAPACITY TO VEHICLE AND SYSTEM THEREOF
No full textA method for checking the braking capacity of a vehicle (10), said vehicle (10) comprising a body(11), at least one wheel (15), a braking system arranged to reduce the speed of the or each wheel (15), said braking system comprising an interface device arranged to operate the braking system. The method comprises the steps of arranging the vehicle (10) in a working area (100) comprising at least one rotating roller (110) and a control unit, arrangement of body (11) in a predetermined position and associating each wheel (15) to at least one rotating roller (110) by a constraint of rolling friction, actuating the or each rotating roller (110) to put in rotation at least one wheel (15) to it associated until a predetermined speed ω is reached, actuating the braking system, by the interface device (20), for reducing the predetermined speed ω of the or each wheel (15) put in rotation, detecting the tangential force between each wheel (15) and at least one rotating roller (110) to it associated. Furthermore, downstream of the step of actuating the or each rotating roller (110), a step is provided of locking the vehicle (10) in such a way that the body (11) is maintained substantially in the predetermined position also in case of forces applied to the body (11), said step of locking carried out by means of lock means
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