Figure 10

Tests on subject GD007. An example of the results obtained by patient GD007 during the drinking task supported by the exo, the EMG-based NMES arm module and the hand NMES module (Additional file 8) Panel a) shows the angles of the exoskeleton: shoulder elevation (in blue), shoulder rotation (in red), elbow angle (in green); the dashed black line shows the activation of the brakes; panels b) and c) report the root mean square of the voluntary EMG and the pulse width delivered to the muscles (the biceps and the medial deltoid are reported in panel b) and c) respectively). The activation and deactivation thresholds of the NMES controller are shown in dashed and solid horizontal line respectively. In panels (a-c) the vertical lines indicate the instants in which the subject interacted with the system and delimitate 8 different phases of the movement: 1. approach the object; 2. interaction with MUNDUS CC; 3. open hand and reach the object; 4. grasp object and move to mouth; 5. drink; 6. move back to table; 7. release object and back to rest; 8. relax hand. Data coming from the hand module are reported in the panels on the right: panel d) shows the kinematic raw data (range 0–1023) measured by the instrumented glove at the PIP joints, panel e) reports the raw data (range 0–1023) of the force sensors; the stimulation currents for the muscles involved in the grasping and hand opening are reported in panels f) and g), respectively. In panels d-g the vertical lines indicates the different phases in terms of hand functions.