2001 — 2002 |
Zelaznik, Howard |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Doctoral Dissertation Research: the Cerebellum and Cognitive Timing Processes
In the study of skilled performance, it is fairly well accepted that the cerebellum provides a timing process that is involved in the production of motor skills. This project looks at whether different types of timing tasks use the same cerebellar-timing system. It is expected that discrete tasks with a clear beginning and end (such as tapping) use a cerebellar timing system, because such tasks involve an explicit timing process. Other tasks, however, are not expected to use an explicit timing process. One example is continuous circle drawing. In these cases, continuous timing processes may not depend upon a normal functioning cerebellum. Individuals who have brain damage to one side of the cerebellum will be tested. These patients exhibit a normal, unimpaired hand which is controlled by the normal side cerebellum, and a movement-damaged hand controlled by the damaged side of the cerebellum. By comparing performance of the impaired and unimpaired hand for continuous and discrete tapping and circle drawing, it can be ascertained whether the cerebellum is important for such performance. For smooth continuous tasks such as circle drawing, it is expected that the cerebellum is not crucial for timing performance. However, discrete tasks should require an intact cerebellum.
This project will provide important new insight into cerebellar functioning and motor skills.
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0.915 |
2004 — 2010 |
Zelaznik, Howard Lee, C.s. George |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Skill Learning For Humanoid Robots
Currently humanoid robots do not move like human beings. They are not skillful enough to perform tasks that require interactions with humans and the environment. Humans can learn new skills very easily with deliberate practice. If humanoid robots could acquire skills like humans, they would be able to help with many needs of society.
Humans exhibit remarkable flexibility in motor skill. We believe that human flexibility is derived from the fact that humans are inconsistent in performance. This inconsistency allows people the flexibility to learn new skills. Should humanoid robots have the ability to acquire skills like humans, we can expect a dramatic improvement in the performance of humanoid robots on various tasks.
This proposal, a unique collaboration between a robotics researcher and a motor learning and control researcher from a kinesiology perspective, aims at capturing these characteristics of human motor learning and control and then instantiating these characteristics in the coordination and control algorithms of a humanoid robot. In addition, an international collaboration with researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan will allow us to examine the goodness of our research experimentally on an HRP-2 humanoid robot.
In this project, we will be studying the motion of human subjects as they learn a few complicated tasks. These subjects will either practice the skill as a whole or practice the individual parts of the skill. We then will observe how well subjects transfer to a novel motor skill. We will model the learning human with network models and then attempt to put these models in a humanoid robot. Will the humanoid robot show the same transfer of learning as the human? Can the humanoid robot show the same types of errors as the human? These are some of the questions that we seek to answer from this research.
The broader impacts of this research include: (i) a systematic investigation of motor skill learning and transfer, their limitations, and their integration to produce intelligent humanoid robots; (ii) research collaboration between researchers from engineering and liberal arts to engage in information technology research and education from different perspectives, and international research collaboration with the AIST in Japan; (iii) development of a web site for students to simulate humanoid robots using OpenHRP software; and (iv) research results will be disseminated in professional conference and archival journal publications. In addition, the project will have an impact on undergraduate and graduate education, especially experimental research and senior design projects. Finally, for the outreach impact, humanoid robots and simulation tools will be an excellent vehicle to educate high-school students in team work and encourage them to select engineering for their higher education and career.
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0.915 |
2013 — 2017 |
Raman, Arvind Zelaznik, Howard Rietdyk, Shirley (co-PI) [⬀] Haddad, Jeffrey (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Nonlinear Dynamics and Bifurcations of Human Posture On Tunable Balance Boards
The goal of this research is to study the dynamics of human posture on a balance board with tunable stiffness and time delay and exploit this understanding to improve the early detection of neuromuscular disease and the rehabilitation of balance compromised populations. The research will develop new mathematical models of human posture coupled to an external system and study the emergent dynamics therein; and develop a novel balance board with tunable board rotational stiffness and time delay. This tunable device will be used to assess the potential advantages of bifurcation-based approaches for the early detection of neuromuscular disorder and improved rehabilitation of younger subjects, older subjects and individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), in collaboration with the Indiana University School of Medicine. In addition an inter-generational service-learning program focused on improving balance will be developed at a local retirement home, a campus wide forum/seminar series on dynamical systems in perception, cognition, and motor control will be created, senior undergraduate students will be mentored in research projects, and the team will reach out to local MS support groups.
The development of the tunable balance board could be a major improvement in rehabilitative devices as it can manipulate and thus, explore the contribution of muscle stiffness and time delay to balance. If successful the idea of using bifurcation thresholds on the tunable balance boards as a means of indicating early stage neuromuscular disease could lead to early diagnosis of fall-propensity in frail older adults and adults with MS, Parkinson?s disease or persons suffering from traumatic brain injury. New detection and training concepts using these tunable balance boards delay could eventually be commercialized and improve quality of life of balance-compromised individuals. In addition, the substantial economic cost associated with falls, valued at over $19 billion in direct medical costs in 2000, may be reduced.
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0.915 |