The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Iterative learning control of functional electrical stimulation in the presence of voluntary user effort

Iterative learning control of functional electrical stimulation in the presence of voluntary user effort
Iterative learning control of functional electrical stimulation in the presence of voluntary user effort
Worldwide 17 million people are left with impairment to their upper or lower limb following stroke. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a method of artificially activating muscles using electrical pulses and is the most common rehabilitation technology. A significant body of clinical research confirms that successful rehabilitation requires FES to be applied in a way that supports voluntary intention during repeated attempts at functional tasks. Electromyography (EMG) measures the voluntary contraction of muscles and has been used to directly control FES in openloop, however it is limited by poor accuracy. On the other hand, model-based feedback control can provide high accuracy, but does not explicitly promote voluntary intention.

A new dynamic model of the muscle activation, generated by combined voluntary nerve signals and FES, is developed in this paper. It includes both nonlinear recruitment and linear activation dynamics. An efficient identification procedure is then formulated which can be applied to people with stroke. A model-based hybrid EMG/FES control scheme is then derived based on the model structure, allowing tracking and volitional intention support to be simultaneously optimised for the first time. Exploiting the repeated nature of rehabilitation, the control framework is then extended to further improve tracking accuracy. That is achieved by learning from experience through iterative learning control. The framework is experimentally tested with results confirming it can deliver greater performance compared to existing FES approaches, which do not consider voluntary action in the model or controller.
Electromyography, Functional electrical stimulation, Iterative learning control, Stroke rehabilitation
0967-0661
1-11
Sa-E, Sakariya
30bb2dfc-cc97-4c38-81f8-42273fd005e2
Freeman, Christopher T.
ccdd1272-cdc7-43fb-a1bb-b1ef0bdf5815
Yang, Kai
f1c9b81d-e821-47eb-a69e-b3bc419de9c7
Sa-E, Sakariya
30bb2dfc-cc97-4c38-81f8-42273fd005e2
Freeman, Christopher T.
ccdd1272-cdc7-43fb-a1bb-b1ef0bdf5815
Yang, Kai
f1c9b81d-e821-47eb-a69e-b3bc419de9c7

Sa-E, Sakariya, Freeman, Christopher T. and Yang, Kai (2020) Iterative learning control of functional electrical stimulation in the presence of voluntary user effort. Control Engineering Practice, 96, 1-11, [104303]. (doi:10.1016/j.conengprac.2020.104303).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Worldwide 17 million people are left with impairment to their upper or lower limb following stroke. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is a method of artificially activating muscles using electrical pulses and is the most common rehabilitation technology. A significant body of clinical research confirms that successful rehabilitation requires FES to be applied in a way that supports voluntary intention during repeated attempts at functional tasks. Electromyography (EMG) measures the voluntary contraction of muscles and has been used to directly control FES in openloop, however it is limited by poor accuracy. On the other hand, model-based feedback control can provide high accuracy, but does not explicitly promote voluntary intention.

A new dynamic model of the muscle activation, generated by combined voluntary nerve signals and FES, is developed in this paper. It includes both nonlinear recruitment and linear activation dynamics. An efficient identification procedure is then formulated which can be applied to people with stroke. A model-based hybrid EMG/FES control scheme is then derived based on the model structure, allowing tracking and volitional intention support to be simultaneously optimised for the first time. Exploiting the repeated nature of rehabilitation, the control framework is then extended to further improve tracking accuracy. That is achieved by learning from experience through iterative learning control. The framework is experimentally tested with results confirming it can deliver greater performance compared to existing FES approaches, which do not consider voluntary action in the model or controller.

Text
CEP_25_10_19_Ed2 - Accepted Manuscript
Download (3MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 12 January 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 23 January 2020
Published date: March 2020
Keywords: Electromyography, Functional electrical stimulation, Iterative learning control, Stroke rehabilitation

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 436881
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/436881
ISSN: 0967-0661
PURE UUID: 28b4f07b-d135-4ceb-b00d-c37d7c77f8e6
ORCID for Kai Yang: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7497-3911

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 13 Jan 2020 17:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:10

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Sakariya Sa-E
Author: Christopher T. Freeman
Author: Kai Yang ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×