Human-like Robotic Controllers for Enhanced Motor Learning
Eligible age
18–80 yrs
Accepts
All genders
Locations
1 state
Healthy volunteers
Yes
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About this study
The purpose of this study is to develop a new paradigm to understand how humans physically interact with each other at a single and at multiple joints, with multiple contact points, so as to synthesize robot controllers that can exhibit human-like behavior when interacting with humans (e.g., exoskeleton) or other co-robots. The investigators will develop models for a single joint robot (i.e. at the ankle joint) that can vary its haptic behavioral interactions at variable impedances, and replicate in a multi-joint robot (i.e. at the ankle, knee, and hip joints). The investigators will collect data from healthy participants and clinical populations to create a controller based on our models to implement in the robots. Then, the investigators will test our models via the robots to investigate the mechanisms underlying enhanced motor learning during different human-human haptic interaction behaviors (i.e. collaboration, competition, and cooperation. This study will be carried out in healthy participants, participants post-stroke, and participants with spinal cord injury (SCI).
Sponsor: Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
You may qualify if…
- ✓ Age from 18 to 80 years
- ✓ No history of a brain and/or skull lesion
- ✓ Normal hearing and vision, can be corrected
- ✓ Able to understand and give informed consent
- ✓ No neurological disorders
- ✓ Absence of pathology that could cause abnormal movements of extremities (e.g., epilepsy, stroke, marked arthritis, chronic pain, musculoskeletal injuries)
- ✓ Able to understand and speak English
- ✓ Height between 3 foot 6 inches (1.1 meters) and 6 foot 2 inches
You may not qualify if…
- ✕ Weight over 220 lbs
- ✕ Pregnancy (ruled out by pregnancy questionnaire)
- ✕ Current presence of wounds or pressure ulcers
- ✕ Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease or other neurodegenerative disorder, severe dementia, brain injury, spinal cord injury, or cancer of the central nervous system
- ✕ History of significant head trauma (i.e., extended loss of consciousness, neurological sequelae)
- ✕ Known structural brain lesion
- ✕ Significant other disease (heart disease, malignant tumors, mental disorders)
- ✕ History or peripheral nerve injury
Where it's recruiting
Chicago
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · NCT04578665 · last updated 2025-05-25