TU Darmstadt / ULB / TUprints

Whole Body Coordination for Self-Assistance in Locomotion

Seyfarth, André ; Zhao, Guoping ; Jörntell, Henrik (2022):
Whole Body Coordination for Self-Assistance in Locomotion. (Publisher's Version)
In: Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 16, Frontiers, e-ISSN 1662-5218,
DOI: 10.26083/tuprints-00021497,
[Article]

[img] Text
fnbot-16-883641.pdf
Copyright Information: CC BY 4.0 International - Creative Commons, Attribution.

Download (700kB)
Item Type: Article
Origin: Secondary publication via sponsored Golden Open Access
Status: Publisher's Version
Title: Whole Body Coordination for Self-Assistance in Locomotion
Language: English
Abstract:

The dynamics of the human body can be described by the accelerations and masses of the different body parts (e.g., legs, arm, trunk). These body parts can exhibit specific coordination patterns with each other. In human walking, we found that the swing leg cooperates with the upper body and the stance leg in different ways (e.g., in-phase and out-of-phase in vertical and horizontal directions, respectively). Such patterns of self-assistance found in human locomotion could be of advantage in robotics design, in the design of any assistive device for patients with movement impairments. It can also shed light on several unexplained infrastructural features of the CNS motor control. Self-assistance means that distributed parts of the body contribute to an overlay of functions that are required to solve the underlying motor task. To draw advantage of self-assisting effects, precise and balanced spatiotemporal patterns of muscle activation are necessary. We show that the necessary neural connectivity infrastructure to achieve such muscle control exists in abundance in the spinocerebellar circuitry. We discuss how these connectivity patterns of the spinal interneurons appear to be present already perinatally but also likely are learned. We also discuss the importance of these insights into whole body locomotion for the successful design of future assistive devices and the sense of control that they could ideally confer to the user.

Journal or Publication Title: Frontiers in Neurorobotics
Volume of the journal: 16
Place of Publication: Darmstadt
Publisher: Frontiers
Collation: 8 Seiten
Classification DDC: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin, Gesundheit
700 Künste und Unterhaltung > 796 Sport
Divisions: 03 Department of Human Sciences > Institut für Sportwissenschaft > Sportbiomechanik
Date Deposited: 09 Jun 2022 12:19
Last Modified: 22 Aug 2022 09:50
DOI: 10.26083/tuprints-00021497
Corresponding Links:
URN: urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-214973
Additional Information:

This article is part of the Research Topic Biomimetic Control Architectures for Robots (s. verwandtes Werk)

Keywords: biomechanics, neural control, walking, swing leg, trunk, stance, body mechanics, human gait

URI: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/21497
PPN: 495546593
Export:
Actions (login required)
View Item View Item