Kinematic Level Research Articles

Gait Alterations in Knee Osteoarthritis

Objective: People with knee osteoarthritis suffer from many different symptoms and signs, including gait deviations. Studying in deep these alterations through precise instruments like optoelectronic systems allows clinicians to identify alterations on the different body planes during gait. Methods: This study highlights the different alterations found by literature, analyzing them according to the single gait phase. Results: The spatiotemporal parameters are among the most altered parameters; with stride length and speed reduction, on the kinetic and kinematic level, the knee range of motion is reduced while the moments affecting the knee, hip, and ankle joint are altered in the different phases of stance. Conclusions: Preliminary studies have been developed on the possible quantification of these alterations through scoring systems like the Gait Deviation Index. Further studies should use this scoring system also to solve the issue between the possible correlation of pain and gait deviation that literature is still trying to solve.

Model-based joint and task space control strategies for a kinematically redundant parallel manipulator

AbstractOne alternative to overcome the presence of singularities within Parallel Manipulators’ workspace is kinematic redundancy. This design alternative can be realized by adding an extra active joint to a kinematic chain. Due to this addition, the IKM presents an infinite number of solutions requiring a redundancy resolution scheme. Moreover, Parallel Manipulators’ control may require complex strategies due to their coupled and complex dynamic and kinematic relations. In this work, a model-free, a joint space computed torque, and a hybrid joint-task-space computed torque control strategies are experimentally compared for a kinematically redundant parallel manipulator. The latter is a novel strategy that requires the measurement of the end-effector’s pose, which is performed by an eye-to-hand limited frame rate camera. The impact of up to three kinematic redundancy levels is also experimentally evaluated using prepositioning and ongoing positioning redundancy resolution schemes. The data are assessed by evaluating a prescribed trajectory executed using a planar kinematically redundant parallel manipulator. These results indicate that kinematic redundancy can not only be used as an alternative design for reducing the presence of singular regions, as claimed in the literature, but also be used along with model-based control strategies for improving dynamic performance and accuracy of parallel manipulators.

Decentralized adaptive flocking control algorithm with avoiding collision and preserving connectivity for crowded UUV swarm with uncertainties and input saturation

This paper investigates a decentralized adaptive flocking control for crowded unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) swarm in the presence of uncertainties and input saturation. Consider a realistic model of small-size and low-cost UUV with limited communication, it is assumed that only one UUV can access global information (desired path) and each UUV only communicates with its neighbors. To keep all UUVs connected in a crowded swarm, the center of flocking (COF) of each UUV is identified using bio-inspired consensus, thereby a leader-follower flocking controller is proposed to guarantee the collision avoidance and connectivity preservation with bounded fuzzy potential fields at the kinematic level. An adaptive neural networks (NNs) controller is further developed to track the desired path, where an additional control term is incorporated to handle input saturation at the kinetic level. Stability analysis demonstrated that all closed-loop signals are uniformly ultimately bounded. The main contributions of this paper are three-folded. (i) A decentralized algorithm without a prior connectivity assumption on a directed spanning tree is proposed. (ii) Collision avoidance and connectivity preservation can be achieved simultaneously. (iii) An adaptive controller which is robust against model uncertainties and disturbances is developed. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

A Novel Hierarchical Framework for Measuring the Complexity and Irregularity of Multimodal Speech Signals and Its Application in the Assessment of Speech Impairment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Purpose The purposes of this study are to develop a novel multimodal framework for measuring variability at the muscular, kinematic, and acoustic levels of the motor speech hierarchy and evaluate the utility of this framework in detecting speech impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Method The myoelectric activities of three bilateral jaw muscle pairs (masseter, anterior temporalis, and anterior belly of digastric), jaw kinematics, and speech acoustics were recorded in 13 individuals with ALS and 10 neurologically healthy controls during sentence reading. Thirteen novel measures (six muscular, three kinematic, four acoustic), which characterized two different but interrelated aspects of variability-complexity and irregularity-were derived using linear and nonlinear methods. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to identify the latent factors underlying these measures. Based on the latent factors, three supervised classifiers-support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and logistic regression (Logit)-were used to differentiate between the speech samples for patients and controls. Results Four interpretable latent factors were identified, representing the complexity of jaw kinematics, the irregularity of jaw antagonists functioning, the irregularity of jaw agonists functioning, and the irregularity of subband acoustic signals, respectively. Based on these latent factors, the speech samples for patients and controls were classified with high accuracy (> 96% for SVM and RF; 88.64% for Logit), outperforming the unimodal measures. Two factors showed significant between-groups differences, as characterized by decreased complexity of jaw kinematics and increased irregularity of jaw antagonists functioning in patients versus controls. Conclusions Decreased complexity of jaw kinematics presumably reflects impaired fine control of jaw movement, while increased irregularity of jaw antagonists functioning could be attributed to reduced synchronization of motor unit firing in ALS. The findings provide preliminary evidence for the utility of the multimodal framework as a novel quantitative assessment tool for detecting speech impairment in ALS and (potentially) in other neuromotor disorders.

A Kinematical Analysis of the Flap and Wing Mechanism of a Light Sport Aircraft Using Topological Models

In this, paper, we propose a method of kinematic analysis of a planar mechanism with application to the flap and wing mechanism of a light sport aircraft. A topological model is used to describe a mechanical system, which is a model that allows the study of the maneuverability of the system. The proposed algorithm is applied to determine the velocity and acceleration field of this multibody mechanical system. The graph associated with the mechanical system is generated in a new formulation and based on it, the fundamental loops of the graph are identified (corresponding to the independent loops of the mechanism), the equations for closing vectorial contours are written, and the kinematic conditions for determining velocities and accelerations and the associated linear systems are solved, which provides the field of speeds and accelerations. Graph Theory is applied at a kinematic level and not at a dynamic level, as in previous studies. A practical application for the kinematic analysis of the control mechanism of a light aircraft illustrates the proposed method.

Dynamic Visual Servoing of A 6-RSS Parallel Robot Based on Optical CMM

The parallel robots exhibit some outstanding properties on the repeatability, stiffness and force-to-weight ratio compared with serial robots. 6-DOF parallel robots have been utilized in various applications and the research on control design has attracted the attentions of researchers. However, the current Cartesian space path tracking performance of the parallel robots cannot meet the growing requirements from industry. In this paper, a dynamic sliding mode control (DSMC) scheme combined with the position-based visual servoing (PBVS) method is proposed to improve the tracking performance of the 6-Revolute-Spherical-Spherical (6-RSS) parallel robot based on the measurements from the optical coordinate measuring machine (CMM) sensor. By employing the CMM sensor, the pose of the parallel robot in Cartesian space can be estimated and incorporated in a closed-loop visual servoing control scheme in real time. The stability of the proposed DSMC has been proved by using Lyapunov theorem. The real-time experiment tests on a 6-RSS parallel robot demonstrate that the complex 6-dimension trajectory tracking can be achieved with high-accuracy. Compared with the classical kinematic level controllers, the proposed DSMC exhibits the superiority in terms of tracking performance and robustness.

Importance of the cervical capsular joint cartilage geometry on head and facet joint kinematics assessed in a Finite element neck model

Finite element human neck models (NMs) aim to predict neck response and injury at the tissue level; however, contemporary models are most often assessed using global response such as head kinematics. Additionally, many NMs are developed from subject-specific imaging with limited soft tissue resolution in small structures such as the facet joints in the neck. Such details may be critical to enable NMs to predict tissue-level response. In the present study, the capsular joint cartilage (CJC) geometry in a contemporary NM was enhanced (M50-CJC) based on literature data. The M50-CJC was validated at the segment and full neck levels and assessed using relative facet joint kinematics (FJK), capsular ligament (CL) and intervertebral disc (IVD) strains, a relative vertebral rotation assessment (IV-NIC) and head kinematics in frontal and rear impact. The validation ratings at the segment level increased from 0.60 to 0.64, with improvements for modes of deformation associated with the facet joints, while no difference was noted at the head kinematic level. The improved CJC led to increased FJK rotation (188%) and IVD strain (152.2%,) attributed to the reduced facet joint gap. Further enhancements of the capsular joint representation or a link between the FJK and CL injury risk are recommended. Enhancements at the tissue level demonstrated a large effect on the IVD strain, but were not apparent in global metrics such as head kinematics. This study demonstrated that a biofidelic and detailed geometrical representation of the CJC contributes significantly to the predicted joint response, which is critical to investigate neck injury risk at the tissue level.

Dynamical diffeomorphisms

We construct a general effective dynamics for diffeomorphisms of spacetime, in a fixed external metric. Though related to familiar models of scalar fields as coordinates, our models have subtly different properties, both at kinematical and dynamical level. The energy–momentum (EM) tensor consists of two independently conserved parts. The background solution is the identity diffeomorphism and the EM tensor of this solution gives rise to an effective cosmological constant.

A combined backstepping and adaptive fuzzy PID approach for trajectory tracking of autonomous mobile robots

A combined backstepping and adaptive fuzzy PID approach for a nonholonomic autonomous mobile robot to follow the desired path is proposed in this paper. Two adaptive fuzzy PID controllers are adopted at the dynamic control level for velocity tracking and steering control of the robot. The fuzzy PID controller consists of a PID controller which is designed by a trial-and-error approach, optimized using the cross-entropy method, and a fuzzy controller based on relational models with two inputs and three outputs. Adaptive adjustment of the PID controllers is implemented by means of the fuzzy controllers. The pose deviations of the robot when trajectory tracking will be eliminated by the backstepping control technique at the kinematic level using a kinematic model. The simulation validation results demonstrate that the proposed control system can offer good performances for the robot in terms of small distance error, rapid response, high stability, and trajectory tracking more accuracy.

Effects of Dynamic Model Errors in Task-Priority Operational Space Control

SUMMARYControl algorithms of many Degrees-of-Freedom (DOFs) systems based on Inverse Kinematics (IK) or Inverse Dynamics (ID) approaches are two well-known topics of research in robotics. The large number of DOFs allows the design of many concurrent tasks arranged in priorities, that can be solved either at kinematic or dynamic level. This paper investigates the effects of modeling errors in operational space control algorithms with respect to uncertainties affecting knowledge of the dynamic parameters. The effects on the null-space projections and the sources of steady-state errors are investigated. Numerical simulations with on-purpose injected errors are used to validate the thoughts.

Loss of Social/Non-social Context Discrimination by Movement Acceleration in the Valproate Model of Autism.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental alteration characterized by social/communicative deficits, repetitive/stereotyped movements, and restricted/obsessive interests. However, there is not much information about whether movement alterations in ASD comprise modifications at the basic kinematic level, such as trajectory and velocity, which may contribute to the higher level of processing that allows the perception and interpretation of actions performed by others, and hence, impact social interaction. In order to further explore possible motor alterations in ASD, we analyzed movement parameters in the Valproate (VPA) animal model of autism. We found that VPA-treated rats displayed greater movement acceleration, reduced distance between stops, spent more time in the corner of the open-field arena, and executed a number of particular behaviors; for example, supported rearing and circling, with no major changes in distance and velocity. However, in the social interaction test, we found other alterations in the movement parameters. In addition to increased acceleration, VPA-rats displayed reduced velocity, increased stops, reduced distance/stop and lost the social/non-social area discrimination that is characteristic of control rats in acceleration and stops variables. Hence, even if prenatal VPA-treatment could have a minor effect in motor variables in a non-social context, it has a crucial effect in the capacity of the animals to adjust their kinematic variables when social/non-social context alternation is required.

Task constraints act at the level of synergies and at the level of end-effector kinematics in manual reaching and manual lateral interception.

To coordinate the redundant degrees of freedom (DOF) in the action system, synergies are often proposed. Synergies organize DOF in temporary task-specific units emerging from interactions among task, organism, and environmental constraints. We examined whether task constraints affect synergies, end-effector kinematics, or both. To this end, we compared synergies and end-effector kinematics when participants (N = 15) performed discrete movements of identical amplitude in manual reaching (stationary targets) and manual lateral interception (moving targets, with different angles of approach). We found that time-velocity profiles were roughly symmetric in reaching, whereas they had a longer decelerative tail and showed an angle-of-approach effect in interception. Uncontrolled manifold analyses showed that in all conditions joint angle variability was primarily covariation, indicating a synergistic organization. The analysis on the clusters of joint angle configurations demonstrated differences between reaching and interception synergies, whereas more similar synergies were used within interception conditions. This implies that some task constraints operate at the level of synergies while other task constraints only affect end-effector kinematics. The results support a 2-step process in the organization of DOF, consisting of synergy formation and further constraining of synergies to produce the actual movement, as proposed by Kay (1988). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Contribution of the sensory innervation of the spine in low back pain: review and clinical commentary

Few validated tests allow a precise aetiological diagnosis of Low Back Pain (LBP), and the difficulty of clinical evaluations could be one of the reasons to explain the lack of effectiveness in the therapeutic management of chronic LBP. However, an implication of a sensory impairment in the control of sensorimotor circuits could be suggested. Interactive and specific responses between nociceptive nerve fibres and the paraspinal musculature motor control could have clinical implications, in particular through kinematic evaluation. Following an introduction to the link between the sensory innervation of the spine and pain, we then summarise the maladaptive movement in LBP at the kinematic and neuropathological level. A clinical objectification of these kinematic adaptations at the lumbar spine level, would clarify the aetiological diagnosis causes of chronic LBP, and so help optimising therapeutic strategies by proposing a relevant and precise clinical model of this painful condition.

Sex-specific landing biomechanics and energy absorption during unanticipated single-leg drop-jumps in adolescents: implications for knee injury mechanics

Females aged between 13 and 17 years old possess the highest non-contact ACL injury incidence of any sex-age strata. Considering that energy absorption strategies have been associated with a reduced risk for sustaining an ACL injury, evaluating landing performance in youth athletes requires investigations beyond the kinematic level. The purpose of this study was to identify sex-specific energy absorption strategies in adolescent males and females, including the relationship between strength and the observed strategies. Thirty-one healthy adolescent athletes completed unanticipated single-leg drop-jump landings on their dominant limb. Sex-specific kinematics and lower-limb contributions to energy absorption were then compared over the landing phase for each jump. Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients determined the relationship between isometric joint strength and the observed kinematics and energy absorption. Female participants absorbed a larger proportion of the landing energy at the ankle (p = 0.046, d = 0.75) and smaller proportion at the hip (p = 0.028, d = 0.85) compared to males. Females also reached larger peak negative joint power in their knee (p = 0.001, d = 1.1) and ankle (p = 0.04, d = 0.79). Hip extension strength was positively correlated with trunk flexion (r = 0.559, p = 0.001) and negatively correlated with forward pelvic tilt (r = -0.513, p = 0.003). Females adopted an energy absorption strategy which utilized the distal joints to absorb a larger portion of the landing forces and tended to absorb the forces later in the landing phase relative to males. The greater reliance on distal joints is correlated to reduced hip strength and may increase the risk for sustaining an ACL injury.

Patella Alta in Ambulatory Children With Cerebral Palsy: Prevalence and Functional Significance.

Gait dysfunction associated with patella alta (PA) in subjects with cerebral palsy (CP) has been presumed but not objectively established clinically or through biomechanical modeling. It is hypothesized that PA is associated with increasing level of motor impairment, increasing age, obesity, and worse stance phase knee kinematics and kinetics in children with CP. Retrospective case series of 297 subjects with CP studied in our Motion Analysis Center. Data analyzed included patient demographics (age, body mass index, CP classification), patella height (Koshino-Sugimoto Index), and knee kinematics and kinetics. PA was present in 180 of 297 subjects (61%), in 68 of the 146 (47%) with unilateral CP, and 112 of 151 subjects (74%) with bilateral CP. For unilateral CP, the prevalence of PA was not significantly different between Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) I and II (P=0.357). For bilateral CP, the prevalence of PA in GMFCS III was significantly greater than in GMFCS I and II (P=0.02). Regression analysis showed a significant trend between increasing age and PA in unilateral and bilateral groups (P<0.001 and 0.001, respectively). The prevalence of PA was not significantly different across body mass index categories for either unilateral or bilateral groups. There were only 2 of 10 significant correlations between PA and gait parameters for subjects with unilateral CP functioning at the GMFCS I and II levels. There were 8 of 12 significant correlations between PA and gait parameters for subjects with bilateral CP functioning at the GMFCS I, II, and III levels. PA is common in ambulatory children with CP across topographic types and motor functional levels. PA is well tolerated with respect to gait dysfunction in unilateral CP, but may contribute to crouch gait in bilateral CP. Gait dysfunction cannot be inferred from the radiographic assessment of patellar height, and radiographic evidence of PA by itself does not justify surgical correction with patellar tendon advancement or shortening. Level III-prognostic, retrospective series.

A Model-Based Decoupling Method for Surge Speed and Heading Control in Vessel Path Following

In this paper, to solve the surge speed loss problem generated by sway-yaw motion in the path-following control, a model-based decoupling (MBD) method for surge speed and heading control in vessel path following is proposed. The guidance law is designed independently in the kinematic level. In the kinetic level, the surge model and sway-yaw model can be decoupled by assuming that the surge speed varies slowly, and the heading controller and surge speed controller are designed under the framework of the MBD method. Commonly, the surge speed controller is ignored in the path following or designed separately. In the MBD method, the heading controller is designed first through the MPC method, and the coupling terms between the surge model and sway-yaw model are treated as time-varying disturbances, which can be predicted through the outcomes of the heading controller. Then, the time-varying disturbances are compensating in the surge speed controller so that the surge speed can be feedforward compensated to achieve better performance. The simulation results compared the surge speed performance in path following of the MBD method and usual approaches to illustrate the effectiveness of the MBD method.

Inoculation of maize seeds with Pseudomonas putida leads to enhanced seedling growth in combination with modified regulation of miRNAs and antioxidant enzymes

Bacteria that positively interact with plant roots are defined as plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Although the positive effect of PGPR on plant growth has been widely studied, their impact on genetic regulation during plant growth processes remains largely unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the regulatory role of miRNA and redox enzymes in response to PGPR at the maize seedling stage in leaf growth zone which consists of the meristem, elongation and mature zones. For this purpose, growth of the third leaf was monitored in response to Pseudomonas putida (P. putida) KT2440 at phenotypic, physiological, cellular, kinematic, and transcriptional levels. This application resulted in an increase of 15% in shoot length, 56% in both shoot fresh/dry weight, 10% in chlorophyll amount, 8% in mature cell length, 15% in leaf elongation rate, and 7% in cell production; meanwhile final leaf length was unchanged, while leaf area and leaf width decreased by 22% and 16%, respectively. Ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase activity increased throughout the leaf growth zone indicating a possible role in PGPR-plant interaction during transition between cell division, expansion and differentiation processes. The expression analysis of cell cycle check point marker genes revealed that CycA2_1 was mainly responsible for promoting cell proliferation in meristem. miR160, miR169 and miR408 were differentially expressed in the meristem, indicating their indirect regulatory roles in the cell division response to PGPR. In addition, miR160, miR319 and miR396 were downregulated in the elongation zone, which draws attention to their possible role in regulating cell elongation processes. In summary, cell cycle, redox and miRNA regulation in maize seedling growth zones in response to P. putida were investigated for the first time in this study.

Path-Guided Containment Maneuvering of Mobile Robots: Theory and Experiments

This article investigates the path-guided containment maneuvering of networked two-wheeled mobile robots with multiple virtual leaders moving along multiple parameterized paths. A two-level cooperative control architecture is proposed to achieve a containment formation. At the kinematic level, distributed guidance laws and path update laws are developed for mobile robots and virtual leaders, respectively. Containment maneuvering errors are involved in the path update laws design to enforce the coordination between mobile robots and virtual leaders. At the kinetic level, two extended state observers are utilized to estimate the unknown uncertainties existing in surge and yaw dynamics. Then, antidisturbance kinetic control laws are developed through the estimated uncertainties. By using the proposed controllers, the states of mobile robots not only converge to the convex hull spanned by multiple virtual leaders, but also keep a certain formation pattern specified by the convex combination of virtual leaders. The input-to-state stability of the closed-loop path-guided containment maneuvering system is analyzed through Lyapunov theory. The effectiveness of the presented method is verified via experiment on CSICET-MR01 mobile robots.

Quantitative Assessment of Upper-Limb Motor Function for Post-Stroke Rehabilitation Based on Motor Synergy Analysis and Multi-Modality Fusion.

Functional assessment is an essential part of rehabilitation protocols after stroke. Conventionally, the assessment process relies heavily on clinical experience and lacks quantitative analysis. In order to objectively quantify the upper-limb motor impairments in patients with post-stroke hemiparesis, this study proposes a novel assessment approach based on motor synergy quantification and multi-modality fusion. Fifteen post-stroke hemiparetic patients and fifteen age-matched healthy persons participated in this study. During different goal-directed tasks, kinematic data and surface electromyography(sEMG) signals were synchronously collected from these participants, and then motor features extracted from each modal data could be fed into the respective local classifiers. In addition, kinematic synergies and muscle synergies were quantified by principal component analysis (PCA) and k weighted angular similarity ( k WAS) algorithm to provide in-depth analysis of the coactivated features responsible for observable movement impairments. By integrating the outputs of local classifiers and the quantification results of motor synergies, ensemble classifiers can be created to generate quantitative assessment for different modalities separately. In order to further exploit the complementarity between the evaluation results at kinematic and muscular levels, a multi-modal fusion scheme was developed to comprehensively analyze the upper-limb motor function and generate a probability-based function score. Under the proposed assessment framework, three types of machine learning methods were employed to search the optimal performance of each classifier. Experimental results demonstrated that the classification accuracy was respectively improved by 4.86% and 2.78% when the analysis of kinematic and muscle synergies was embedded in the assessment system, and could be further enhanced to 96.06% by fusing the characteristics derived from different modalities. Furthermore, the assessment result of multi-modality fusion framework exhibited a significant correlation with the score of standard clinical tests ( R = - 0.87, P = 1.98e - 5 ). These promising results show the feasibility of applying the proposed method to clinical assessments for post-stroke hemiparetic patients.

On age-dependent bone remodeling

A number of previous studies have investigated the possibilities of modelling the change in density of bones. Remodeling can be formulated at the constitutive or the kinematic level. In this work we introduce a formulation for the density growth process which takes not only the mechanical stimulus into account but also the influence of age on the evolution of growth. We demonstrate the implementation in the context of the finite element method. This novel approach is illustrated for a simple uniaxial extension test and is verified against previous numerical results. Moreover, two further physiologically motivated examples are performed. The results of the proposed modified model show excellent agreement with comparable results from literature and are promising for the application to real-life problems.