CAREER: Research and Education on Control of Human Movement

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Reinbolt 1253317 Project Summary: This CAREER proposal seeks to cultivate an integrated research and education program to understand human movement control through a design, control, and simulation environment. A scientific framework, combining simulations with experiments, is needed to uncover unrecognized principles governing muscle coordination of abnormal human movement, such as post-stroke gait limitations. Muscle-actuated dynamic simulations complement experimental approaches by estimating important variables and identifying cause-and-effect relationships. The proposed research activities will enable scientific tools and simulations to investigate rehabilitations that minimize patient-specific gait limitations following stroke. This research project seeks to: 1) generate optimization algorithms to match models to experiments; 2) link control systems and open-source software to simulate neuromuscular systems; 3) create a controller to synthesize post-stroke gait; 4) characterize and minimize patient-specific gait limitations following stroke; and 5) disseminate project tools and results. These research activities are intimately linked to educational activities that will teach students at various levels the important concepts of coordinated and uncoordinated human movement. This education project seeks to: 1) design both undergraduate and graduate courses to promote human movement simulation research; 2) develop an outreach program, with the help of graduate students, to expose the general public as well as pre-college students to the exciting multidisciplinary study of human movement control; 3) increase the participation of underrepresented students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics; and 4) increase the accessibility for students with disabilities to participate in programs and activities. Intellectual Merit: This project is important to advancing knowledge and understanding in more than one field of science and engineering. It will bridge gaps existing between the experimental approaches used by physicians, physical therapists, and rehabilitation scientists and the computer simulation approaches used by engineers, mathematicians, and computer scientists. The proposed activities will unite these different approaches and form a symbiotic relationship that will overcome a critical barrier to advancing the field of human movement control. The project proposed here is transformative because 1) simulations will be based on optimal, patient-specific models rather than generic, one-size-fits-all models, producing the best possible results for individual subjects and 2) a quantitative basis to discover effective treatments will be enabled, providing evidence-based knowledge about which treatment paradigms work best in which post-stroke patients. Although the proposed activities focus on neuroscience and rehabilitation, these activities may impact other areas, including ergonomics, sports performance, and injury. Broader Impact: This project will advance discovery and understanding for post-stroke rehabilitation while promoting teaching, training, and learning by contributing tutorials to the National Science Digital Library. A set of models representing the experimental data will be generated with participation of students from underrepresented groups. The proposed activities will enhance the infrastructure for research and education to a large extent in three ways: 1) establishing collaborations between U.S. academic institutions and international partners, 2) developing scientific framework for next-generation research and education, and 3) improving an existing open-source simulation platform with new capabilities. Results will be disseminated broadly through SimTK.org, a community-building website with over 10,000 members (more than 5,000 of whom will be directly impacted by the proposed activities). Its potential widespread use will benefit society by advancing core medical technology, enabling new discoveries in the neuroscience and medical rehabilitation communities. In the spirit of NSF topic areas, one such discovery may be a fundamental theory of physically-interactive motor control. A step toward such discoveries is identifying effective rehabilitation strategies for patients following stroke and other movement disorders.