Leader: Alessandra Del Felice (UNIPD); Other collaborator(s): INRCA, CNR-ISTI. Margherita Bertuccelli (UNIPD)
We will design an experimental set-up to co-register electromyographic (EMG), angular motion through Interial Motion Units (IMUs) and electroencephalographic (EEG) signals during controlled balance perturbations and gait. Neurophysiological and kinematic features of loss of balance, postural adjustments and physiological gait will be identified. Best stabilisation strategies identified during this step will be enacted by a rigid exoskeleton already in place @IAS Lab UNIPD. The neurophysiological correlates of movements, like the classification of EEG and EMG signals and kinematic signals, and corticomuscular coherence will be identified. Ad-hoc psychometric testing will provide information on embodiment and end users’ acceptability of the robot during the assisted tasks. Volunteers for data collection will be enrolled among community-dwelling elderly.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results:
Towards the completion of the experimental set up, we have concluded the fine-tuning of an ad hoc, controlled balance board to induce balance perturbation to participants. We are now starting dry-runs before enrolling elderly subjects. Due to safety issues, we have also moved the experimental set-up to a different lab, with an in-build safety harness. We are in parallel pursuing the identification of neurophysiological correlates of embodiment: we concluded the first set of data acquisition and analysis of self-activated vs externally activated somatosensory stimulation during tasks with and without an exoskeleton. The results are in line with our hypothesis and confirm the reduced amplitude of Somatosensory evoked potentials recorded from self-induced stimulation, even when donning an exoskeleton. Data collection is now continuing to
- enlarge the sample size for publication,
- compare different devices (light, heavy and monoarticular) to confirm the biomarker reliability.
Lastly, we started enrolling participants for a study planned in collaboration with Age-IT colleagues from UNIFI - Design Faculty, aimed at providing end-users perspectives on exoskeletons using ad hoc questionnaires and focus groups.
Main policy, industrial and scientific implications:
The collaboration with UNIFI-Design faculty is forseen to provide practical guidelines for industries design/production of assistive robotic devices. Similarly, the identification for the first time of quantifiable biomarkers of embodiment of robots reinforces this output, in the prospective of empowering the italian industrial sector in the field.
The experimental protocol foresees the use of a harness to ensure participants' safety. Data collection will thus take place in a fully equipped motion lab analysis. The setting will provide us with the opportunity to collect full set of data on a subset of volunteers during controlled balance perturbations including electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG), stereophotogrammetric motion capture, Inertial Measurement Units (IMU). The whole dataset will be published on Scientific Data and will be, to our knowledge, the first open-access database of balance perturbation with EEG-EMG-IMUs-motion capture coregistration
Please see the next reporting period.
The reference period has seen the:
- Completion of data collection of the experiment “Neurophysiological markers of exoskeleton embodiment” (last recording on October 4th). The experiment entailed EEG recording during self- or external stimulation at the wrist during lower limb motion with and without the exoskeleton. Features of Somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) extracted from EEG signals provide a marker of embodiment based on the self-attenuation theory – i.e. SSEPs have lower amplitude if the stimulation is self-induced.
- Completion of the perturbation paradigm on a controlled balance board based on the concept of functional limit of stability (fLoS). This technical advancement will enable data collection of kinematic and muscle data and, in a subsample of participants, electroencephalography data during loss of balance
- Development of an algorithm for biomechanical model reconstruction from IMUs positioned on SEINIAM guidelines EMG recording points to optimize the experimental set-up. IMUs and EMG full set-up is burdensome in terms of the number of sensors mounted on the participant and time for set up. We will compare the in-house code with the commercial model provided by the IMU system
- Definition, in collaboration with UNICAL and the cascade project partners 2SMARTEST and Moveo srl, of the biomechanical features of lower limb soft robot to stabilize lower limb during motion /falls in the elderly
- Definition of a research protocol on usability and design of lower limb exoskeleton in collaboration with the Department of Architecture and Design @University of Florence, part of Spoke 9.
- Initial discussion on agreement with the exoskeleton proprietary company for IPRs and knowledge sharing of outputs of the previous experiment
Ethics Committee clearance has been obtained for all experiments except for the design/usability experiment in collaboration with UNIFI.
Meeting @UNIPD Neurorobotics lab:
- (in person) with prof. Carbone and Ing. Panizzolo in September 2024
- (remote) with prof. Mundo to discuss potential collaboration and involvement of UNIPD in a MSCA Doctoral Network call (deadline 28th November) promoted by UNICAL
The reference period has seen the:
- Ongoing recruitment of elderly participants (to date, 60 healthy elderly volunteers) for lower- and upper-limb experiments
- Development and optimization of a pipeline for assessing upper limb performance in stroke patients and healthy controls (MATLAB). Specifically, an in-house code has been developed to identify functional motor primitives in upper limb tasks, through comparison with video-based segmentation.
- Dry runs related to the protocol “A MEP-based prediction model of hypertonia development in acute stroke”. In particular:
- Data collected on three stroke patients
- Data collected on two healthy subjects
- Development of the associated data analysis pipeline to identify MEP in MATLAB.
- Dry runs for the protocol "Use of an Exoskeleton to Enhance Balance Response in Adult and Elderly Subjects," including:
- Testing and optimizing balance board inclinations to induce significant perturbations
- Protocol registration of upper limb motor trajectories quantification in healthy elderly controls and patients with stroke (title: “A MEP-based prediction model of hypertonia development in acute stroke”) in Open Science Framework
- Ethics Committee clearance has been obtained for all experiments except for the design/usability experiment in collaboration with UNIFI.
Paper drafting
1. Scoping Review on home-based upper limb training post stroke: first draft
2. Neurophysiological markers of human robot-interaction: first draft
Meeting @UNIPD Neurorobotics lab:
- Bimonthly online meetings with the team of the Cascade Call of WP3 (i.e. the companies 2Smartest and Moveo) for the design and prototyping of a lower limb and upper limb soft-exoskeleton with embedded Memory Alloys Fibres as smart actuators
Scientific publications
- Bertuccelli, M., Bisiacchi, P., & Del Felice, A. (2024). Disentangling cerebellar and parietal contributions to gait and body schema: a repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation study. The Cerebellum, 1-11.
- Bertuccelli M., Trombin E., Tortora S., Menegatti E., Tonin L., Del Felice A., "Human-Robot interactions and embodiment of assistive wearable robots," 5th Italian Conference of Robotics and Intelligent Machines (I-RIM 2023, Rome) - Conference Abstract and Poster
- Bertuccelli M., Tortora S., Menegatti E., Del Felice A., "Impact of psycho-affective and cognitive factors on acceptance and usability of assistive robotic walking devices.", 51st SIMFER National Congress (SIMFER 2023, Bologna). - Conference Abstract
- A seminar on "Precision rehabilitation interventions in neurological patients undergoing robot-assisted motor training" organized at the Padua Neuroscience Center by Prof. A. Del Felice
- Bertuccelli M., Tortora S., Trombin E ., Pasinato M., Tasinazzo W., Sparacino G., Menegatti E., Del Felice A. “Marker neurofisiologico dell'integrazione uomo-esoscheletro: prospettive per la riabilitazione robotica” 52nd SIMFER National Congress (SIMFER 2024, Padova). - Conference Abstract
- Bertuccelli, M., Tortora S., Trombin E ., Pasinato M., Tasinazzo W., Sparacino G., Menegatti E., Del Felice A. “How to improve Human Robot interaction,” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS, 2024 October 14-18, Abu Dhabi): – Conference Abstract and Poster
- Bettella F., Tortora S., Menegatti E., Petrone N., Del Felice A. “Scoping Review on Lower Limb Exoskeleton Actuation's Description and Characteristics”, Robotica, accepted December 29th 2024
Dissemination Events
- Dissemination event of October 24th, in the frame of the DigitalWeek, “Invecchiamento attivo: robot e tecnologia al servizio della popolazione”, with the talk “Neurorobotics to augment motor performance in the elderly”
- Communication event on October 23th at UNIPD with the talk “Neurophysiological markers to fine-tune wearable robotics uptake for the elderly”