Abstract
This paper reports the design, construction, and testing of a replica of the human arm, which aims to be dynamically as well as kinematically accurate. The arm model is actuated with McKibben pneumatic artificial muscles, and controlled by a special purpose digital signal processing system designed to simulate spinal neural networks in real time. An artificial muscle spindle has also been designed and tested. Design and test data are reviewed, and the paper describes how we hope to use the system to improve our understanding of the reflexive control of human movement and posture.
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This research was supported by grants from the Office of Naval Research and by the National Science Foundation under a Presidential Young Investigator Award. We would also like to acknowledge the support of Electricite de France (EdF) and help from Glenn Klute.
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Hannaford, B., Winters, J.M., Chou, CP. et al. The anthroform biorobotic arm: A system for the study of spinal circuits. Ann Biomed Eng 23, 399–408 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02584440
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02584440