Hello and welcome to the 'Tech for Paralysis' project! 🎉
This project aims to develop efficient methods for personalising assistive technology to restore arm function in people with high-level spinal cord injury. A general description of the project can be found here.
We will use a combination of electrical stimulation to elicit forces in muscles no longer under voluntary control, and mobile arm supports to compensate for insufficient muscle force where necessary. We will use computational models specific to an individual's functional limitations to produce patient-specific interventions. Musculoskeletal models and code for customising them based on participant data can be found here, while code to allow control of the stimulators using real-time data streamed from EMG sensors can be found in its own repository here.
The project will be in three phases: building a model to predict the effects of electrical stimulation on a paralysed arm with arm support, development of methodologies using this model to optimise the arm support and stimulation system, and testing of stimulation controllers designed using this approach.
The project brings together experts in biomechanics and musculoskeletal modelling, spinal cord injury rehabilitation and assistive technologies. Click here to meet the team.
The project is funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
Thank you for your interest in contributing to our project! Please let us know if you find typing mistakes, documentation that is unclear, or code that could be improved. Our aim is to be completely open with our research, and we welcome your comments and feedback. 😄
Our project adheres to a code of conduct. Please uphold this code, and report unacceptable behaviour to Dimitra.