OBJECTIVE To compare peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) between: (i) functional electrical stimulation lower extremity pulsed isometric muscle contractions combined with arm cycling (FES iso hybrid), (ii) functional electrical stimulation cycling combined with arm cycling (FES hybrid cycling), and (iii) arm cycling exercise (ACE) in individuals with spinal cord injury with level of injury above and b...

Functional Electrical Stimulation on Paraplegic Patients. We report on clinical and physiological effects of 8 months Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) of quadriceps femoris muscle on 16 paraplegic patients. Each patient had muscle biopsies, CT-muscle diameter measurements, knee extension strength testing carried out before and after 8 months FES training. Skin perfusion was documented th...

One of the fundamental questions in service robotics is how we can get those machines to work efficiently in the same environment with and under the command of the average user. The answer – not an easy one – is in the development of human-robot interfaces (HRI), which should be able to transmit the will of the user to the robot in a simple but effective way preferably using means that are natu...

BACKGROUND Functional electrical stimulation (FES) is becoming an accepted treatment method for enhancing gait performance in patients who present with gait difficulties resulting from hemiparesis. The purpose of this study was to test whether individuals with hemiparesis who have varied gait speeds, which place them in different functional categories, benefit to the same extent from the applic...

Many patients with upper motoneuron lesion have difficulty in making useful muscle contractions due to weak and atrophied muscles. The feasibility of using functional electrical stimulation (FES) for muscle activation to restore gait in these patients has been demonstrated. This is possible because most of these patients have intact peripheral nerves below their level of injury that can be stim...

Implanted neuroprostheses employing functional electrical stimulation (FES) provide grasp and release to individuals with tetraplegia. This paper describes and compares three methods of controlling the stimulated hand movement: shoulder position, wrist position and myoelectric activity from the wrist extensors. Three experienced neuroprosthesis users were evaluated with each of the control meth...

Bilateral vocal fold paralysis (BVCP) is a life threatening condition and appears to be a good candidate for therapy using functional electrical stimulation (FES). Developing a working FES system has been technically difficult due to the inaccessible location and small size of the sole arytenoid abductor, the posterior cricoarytenoid (PCA) muscle. A naturally-occurring disease in horses shares ...

The idea of robotic therapy has been considered as a possible rehabilitation strategy to facilitate recovery the patients with disability and it can represent an efficient treatment. Brain-computer interface (BCI) is known advanced technology great potential in therapeutic assistive robots. This paper presented review application BCI systems through combination electroencephalography (EEG) func...

Neurological diseases may reduce Tibialis Anterior (TA) muscle recruitment capacity causing gait disorders, such as drop foot (DF). The majority of DF patients still retain excitable nerves and muscles which makes Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) an adequate technique to restore lost mobility. Recent studies suggest the need for developing personalized assist-as-needed control strategies...

The clinical efficacy of functional electrical stimulation (FES) is limited by the rapid onset of fatigue. Functional electrical stimulation applications typically stimulate skeletal muscles with constant-frequency trains (CFTs). Our laboratory has identified trains that we call doublet-frequency trains (DFTs) and that produce greater forces than CFTs, but more fatigue during repetitive activat...