Biologically inspired modelling for the control of the upper limb movements: from concept studies to future applications

Abstract

Modelling is continuously being deployed to gain knowledge on the mechanisms of motor control. Computational models, simulating the behaviour of complex systems, have often been used in combination with soft computing strategies, thus shifting the rationale of modelling from the description of a behaviour to the understanding of the mechanisms behind it. In this context, computational models are preferred to deterministic schemes because they deal better with complex systems. The literature offers some striking examples of biologically inspired modelling, which perform better than traditional approaches when dealing with both learning and adaptivity mechanisms. Can these theoretical studies be transferred into an application framework? That is, can biologically inspired models be used to implement rehabilitative devices? Some evidences, even if preliminary, are presented here, and support an affirmative answer to the previous question, thus opening new perspectives.

Cortex inspired model for inverse kinematics computation for a humanoid robotic finger

“…This is an important and desirable feature since in daily tasks humanoid hands/fingers may be subjected to various types of perturbation during finger reaching and grasping, especially in unstructured environments [2]. Also, the changes observed in the joint angles computed by the cortical model under perturbed conditions indicate that the perturbations were not corrected through feedback but compensated by the cortical model that changed its on-line activity to re-converge to the targets.…”

“…This work has tried to replicate hand/finger sensorimotor coordination, transformation and adaptability to the task demand as well as to the dynamics of unstructured environments [1],[2]. However, although multi-fingered humanoid hands are expected to have the versatility to perform fine and complex tasks that are impossible with a simple gripper, such multi-fingered humanoid hands are a complex kinematic system.…”

Hand-in-hand advances in biomedical engineering and sensorimotor restoration

“…As clearly proposed by current bio-computational modeling of sensory-motor integration, the brain is able to reciprocally balance the incoming sensory information and the outgoing motor command through inverse and forward internal predictions of the expected motor outcome and the associated sensory consequence (Perruchoud et al, 2014). Biomedical engineering is starting to face this issue by developing adaptive robot controllers (Conforto et al, 2009;Reinhart and Steil, 2009). In order to cope with the highly non-linear relationship between sensory and motor information -which further depends on the degrees of freedom and anatomical constraints (Ionta et al, 2012) -one possible solution is the implementation of the so-called "inverse kinematics", i.e.…”

Cortical network modeling for inverse kinematic computation of an anthropomorphic finger

“…Consequently, when considering the multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs) involved in the control of dexterous robotic hands and fingers, both neuroscientists and roboticists focused on adaptive robot controllers [2],[3]. …”