Development of a human-like motor nerve model to simulate the diseases effects on muscle tension for neurologic examination training

Abstract

Neurologic examination takes an important role in the physical examination. By now, several methods have been carried out for medical training which bring the benefits for trainee to master the skills and accumulate experiences. However, because of the limits of these methods, the training effectiveness is limited. With the developments of technology, more and more simulators have been launched to improve medical training effectiveness. However, most of these simulators only focus on mimicking the symptoms, not simulating the pathology of diseases. In this paper, we propose an improved motor nerve model which is used in the elbow robot named WKE-2(Waseda Kyotokagaku Elbow Robot No.2). This robot is designed to simulate the disorders of motor nerves to give the trainee a full training on the elbow examination. The motor nerve model mimics the real motor nerve structure. And the functions of each part are designed from analysis of the real functions of each organ. In this robot, the effects of motor nerve system, and various symptoms related to the examination of elbow force, biceps tendon reflex, involuntary action are simulated. Making use of this robot, a systematic training on the skills as well as the understanding of knowledge is provided. Finally, several experiments are performed to verify our proposed system. The experimental results lead to the consideration that the approach is worth following in further research.