Determination of Stimulation Timing Pattern based on EMG Signals for FES Cycling with Pedaling Wheelchair
A simple functional electrical stimulation (FES) cycling control with the pedaling wheelchair was developed in our previous study. However, it needed measurement of muscle response time of each stimulated muscle before cycling. In addition, cycling speed
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Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan 2 Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
Abstract— A simple functional electrical stimulation (FES) cycling control with the pedaling wheelchair was developed in our previous study. However, it needed measurement of muscle response time of each stimulated muscle before cycling. In addition, cycling speed varied between subjects and between trials. In this study, stimulation timing pattern was determined based on EMG signals and tested in FES cycling for the pedaling wheelchair with healthy subjects. The EMG-based stimulation timing, in which stimulation start timing for the rectus femoris was modified to be the same as the vastus lateralis, was shown to be effective improving cycling speed and stability of FES cycling. The timing pattern could be practical because it does not require measurements of muscle response times.
Fig. 1 Pedaling wheelchair (TESS Co., Ltd.) developed in Japan.
Keywords— FES, cycling, pedaling wheelchair, EMG
I. INTRODUCTION
Pedaling wheelchair developed in Japan (Fig. 1) has been expected to be a transportation equipment for persons with difficulty in walking [1]. Measurement of electromyography (EMG) in driving the pedaling wheelchair with hemiplegic patients also suggested that training with the pedaling wheelchair was effective in motor rehabilitation [2]. The pedaling wheelchair makes possible rehabilitation of lower limbs for patients who have severe motor paralysis and paraplegic subjects in combination with functional electrical stimulation (FES) decreasing significantly the risk of falling. FES cycling has been studied by using various types of equipment. In those studies, bicycle ergometer combined with FES aimed only at rehabilitation training [3]-[5], and FES control for mobile cycling depends on cycling system [6]-[11]. In our previous studies [10, 11], a simplified FES cycling system was developed using the commercially available pedaling wheelchair in Japan considering decrease of the number of stimulated muscles and no requirement of extensive modifications of the wheelchair. Although the FES control system could propel the pedaling wheelchair with neurologically intact subjects, cycling speed of FES cycling varied between subjects and between trials more than voluntary cycling. In the previous studies, stimulation timing that switched electrical stimulation between the left and the right lower limbs was determined experimentally, which did not reflect muscle activation timings. Therefore, modification of © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 H. Eskola et al. (eds.), EMBEC & NBC 2017, IFMBE Proceedings 65, DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-5122-7_99
the stimulation timing pattern was considered to improve cycling speed and its variation in FES cycling. In this study, first, stimulation timing pattern for FES cycling with the pedaling wheelchair was determined from EMG signals measured with healthy subjects. Then, the EMG-based stimulation timing pattern was ex
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