A Novel Wrist Device for Characterizing the Components of Proprioceptive Acuity.

Proprioception is important in human motor control but can be impaired by neurological disease. Unfortunately, our understanding of proprioceptive deficit is very limited, especially for important joints such as the wrist. To address this gap, we have constructed a robotic testbed designed to measure different aspects of proprioceptive acuity at the human wrist during pronation/supination.

Teleoperator Coupling Dynamics Impact Human Motor Control Across Pursuit Tracking Speeds.

Robotic teleoperators introduce novel electromechanical dynamics between the user and the environment. While considerable effort has focused on minimizing these dynamics, we lack a robust understanding of their impact on user task performance across the range of human motor control ability. Here, we utilize a 1-DoF teleoperator testbed with interchangeable mechanical and electromechanical couplings between the leader and follower to investigate to what extent, if any, the dynamics of the teleoperator influence performance in a visual-motor pursuit tracking task.

Loss of finger control complexity and intrusion of flexor biases are dissociable in finger individuation impairment after stroke.

The ability to control each finger independently is an essential component of human hand dexterity. A common observation of hand function impairment after stroke is the loss of this finger individuation ability, often referred to as enslavement, i.e.

Novel Planar Strain Sensor Design for Capturing 3-Dimensional Fingertip Forces from Patients Affected by Hand Paralysis.

Assessment and therapy for individuals who have hand paresis requires force sensing approaches that can measure a wide range of finger forces in multiple dimensions. Here we present a novel strain-gauge force sensor with 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) designed for use in a hand assessment and rehabilitation device. The sensor features a fiberglass printed circuit board substrate to which eight strain gauges are bonded.