RI | Seminar | April 13, 2007

Robotics Institute Seminar, April 13, 2007
Time and Place | Seminar Abstract | Speaker Biography | Speaker Appointments

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Robot-assisted movement training after neurologic injury: Initial clinical results and next steps for improving effectiveness

David Reinkensmeyer

Associate Professor

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Department of Biomedical Engineering
University of California, Irvine

Time and Place

Mauldin Auditorium (NSH 1305)
Refreshments 3:15 pm
Talk 3:30 pm

RoboCast

Abstract

The field of robot-assisted movement therapy grew rapidly over the past ten years, and has had some success in helping people to relearn to move the arm or to walk after stroke and spinal cord injury. In this talk I will discuss several problems that the field will likely need to address in order to continue to grow. These problems are to: 1) define the specific benefits of robotic actuation per se; 2) increase the magnitude of functional benefits of robotic training; and 3) identify the mechanisms of motor learning in robot-manipulated environments. I will review recent research in our laboratory that is addressing these problems. These projects are identifying motor learning tasks that robotic assistance is best suited to enhance, developing non-robotic therapeutic technology when appropriate (i.e passive orthoses), and optimizing the forms of robotic assistance to account for the computational motor adaptation strategies used by the human motor system.

Speaker Biography

David J. Reinkensmeyer received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, in 1988, 1991, and 1993, respectively. He was a research associate at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University Medical School from 1994 to 1997. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Reinkensmeyer's research interests are in neuromuscular control, motor learning, robotics, and neurorehabilitation.

Speaker Appointments

For appointments, please contact Janice Brochetti (janiceb@cs.cmu.edu)

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The Robotics Institute is part of the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.