A Neuromechanical-Robotic Approach to Control Pathological Tremor in Upper Limbs

Millions of people around the world suffer from pathological tremors, which significantly reduce the quality of their lives. To date, there is no permanent cure to pathological tremors. Existing treatments such as surgery and medications can be expensive. They can also be invasive and come with side effects. The aim of this project is to develop and implement a cost-effective and ergonomic wearable exoskeleton to mitigate tremors and provide movement assistance to tremor patients. The broader impacts of the project include improvement in the quality of life of patients suffering from pathological tremors, the inclusion of students from underrepresented groups, mentoring and training of undergraduate and graduate students, and integration of the research findings into classroom materials. The development of the proposed technology will focus on novel neuromusculoskeletal analyses, wearable exoskeletons, and human-robot cooperative control theories, as well as their integration into rehabilitation exoskeletons for tremor alleviation. The primary objective is to gain a fundamental understanding of the interplay between tremor-related physical movements, cortical signals, and neuromuscular signals. The secondary objective is to develop a compact rehabilitation device embedded with a robust adaptive controller to suppress tremors and assist movement in daily life. To pursue these objectives, the research team will conduct a combination of theoretical, computational, and experimental analyses to investigate the dynamics of tremor. A model-based optimal control framework will be developed for tremor alleviation and movement assistance, and a wearable exoskeleton will be designed and manufactured for conducting experiments on tremor patients. The anticipated impacts of this project include a fundamental understanding of pathological tremor dynamics that furthers the development of better exoskeletons empowered by novel real-time tremor modeling and cooperative control algorithms. The proposed framework will suit exoskeletons designed not only for tremor alleviation, but also for other rehabilitation goals. The generic methods proposed for tremor modeling and cooperative control will also provide solutions applicable to other fields of robotics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.