Adaptive Neural Networks for Control of Movement Trajectories Invariant under Speed and Force Rescaling

This article describes two neural network modules that form part of an emerging theory of how adaptive control of goal-directed sensory-motor skills is achieved by humans and other animals. The Vector-Integration-To-Endpoint (VITE) model suggests how synchronous multi-joint trajectories are generated and performed at variable speeds. The Factorization-of-LEngth-and-TEnsion (FLETE) model suggests how outflow movement commands from a VITE model may be performed at variable force levels without a loss of positional accuracy. The invariance of positional control under speed and force rescaling sheds new light upon a familiar strategy of motor skill development: Skill learning begins with performance at low speed and low limb compliance and proceeds to higher speeds and compliances. The VITE model helps to explain many neural and behavioral data about trajectory formation, including data about neural coding within the posterior parietal cortex, motor cortex, and globus pallidus, and behavioral properties such as Woodworth's Law, Fitts Law, peak acceleration as a function of movement amplitude and duration, isotonic arm movement properties before and after arm-deafferentation, central error correction properties of isometric contractions, motor priming without overt action, velocity amplification during target switching, velocity profile invariance across different movement distances, changes in velocity profile asymmetry across different movement durations, staggered onset times for controlling linear trajectories with synchronous offset times, changes in the ratio of maximum to average velocity during discrete versus serial movements, and shared properties of arm and speech articulator movements. The FLETE model provides new insights into how spina-muscular circuits process variable forces without a loss of positional control. These results explicate the size principle of motor neuron recruitment, descending co-contractive compliance signals, Renshaw cells, Ia interneurons, fast automatic reactive control by ascending feedback from muscle spindles, slow adaptive predictive control via cerebellar learning using muscle spindle error signals to train adaptive movement gains, fractured somatotopy in the opponent organization of cerebellar learning, adaptive compensation for variable moment-arms, and force feedback from Golgi tendon organs. More generally, the models provide a computational rationale for the use of nonspecific control signals in volitional control, or "acts of will", and of efference copies and opponent processing in both reactive and adaptive motor control tasks.National Science Foundation (IRI-87-16960); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (90-0128, 90-0175

Inter-Joint Coordination Deficits Revealed in the Decomposition of Endpoint Jerk During Goal-Directed Arm Movement After Stroke

It is well documented that neurological deficits after stroke can disrupt motor control processes that affect the smoothness of reaching movements. The smoothness of hand trajectories during multi-joint reaching depends on shoulder and elbow joint angular velocities and their successive derivatives as well as on the instantaneous arm configuration and its rate of change. Right-handed survivors of unilateral hemiparetic stroke and neurologically-intact control participants held the handle of a two-joint robot and made horizontal planar reaching movements. We decomposed endpoint jerk into components related to shoulder and elbow joint angular velocity, acceleration, and jerk. We observed an abnormal decomposition pattern in the most severely impaired stroke survivors consistent with deficits of inter-joint coordination. We then used numerical simulations of reaching movements to test whether the specific pattern of inter-joint coordination deficits observed experimentally could be explained by either a general increase in motor noise related to weakness or by an impaired ability to compensate for multi-joint interaction torque. Simulation results suggest that observed deficits in movement smoothness after stroke more likely reflect an impaired ability to compensate for multi-joint interaction torques rather than the mere presence of elevated motor noise

Modeling of Human Arm Energy Expenditure for Predicting Energy Optimal Trajectories

Human arm motion can inspire the trajectory planning of anthropomorphic robotic arms to achieve energy-efficient movements. An approach for predicting metabolic cost in the planar human arm motion by means of the biomechanical simulation is proposed in this work. Two biomechanical models, including an analytical model and a musculoskeletal model, are developed to implement the proposed approach. The analytical model is developed by modifying a human muscle expenditure model, in which the muscles are grouped as torque providers for computation efficiency. In the musculoskeletal model, the predication of metabolic cost is conducted on the basis of individual muscles. With the proposed approach, metabolic costs for parameterized target-reaching arm motions are calculated and utilized to identify optimal arm trajectories

Evidence for Composite Cost Functions in Arm Movement Planning: An Inverse Optimal Control Approach

An important issue in motor control is understanding the basic principles underlying the accomplishment of natural movements. According to optimal control theory, the problem can be stated in these terms: what cost function do we optimize to coordinate the many more degrees of freedom than necessary to fulfill a specific motor goal? This question has not received a final answer yet, since what is optimized partly depends on the requirements of the task. Many cost functions were proposed in the past, and most of them were found to be in agreement with experimental data. Therefore, the actual principles on which the brain relies to achieve a certain motor behavior are still unclear. Existing results might suggest that movements are not the results of the minimization of single but rather of composite cost functions. In order to better clarify this last point, we consider an innovative experimental paradigm characterized by arm reaching with target redundancy. Within this framework, we make use of an inverse optimal control technique to automatically infer the (combination of) optimality criteria that best fit the experimental data. Results show that the subjects exhibited a consistent behavior during each experimental condition, even though the target point was not prescribed in advance. Inverse and direct optimal control together reveal that the average arm trajectories were best replicated when optimizing the combination of two cost functions, nominally a mix between the absolute work of torques and the integrated squared joint acceleration. Our results thus support the cost combination hypothesis and demonstrate that the recorded movements were closely linked to the combination of two complementary functions related to mechanical energy expenditure and joint-level smoothness

An Inverse Optimal Control Approach to Explain Human Arm Reaching Control Based on Multiple Internal Models

Human motor control is highly efficient in generating accurate and appropriate motor behavior for a multitude of tasks. This paper examines how kinematic and dynamic properties of the musculoskeletal system are controlled to achieve such efficiency. Even though recent studies have shown that the human motor control relies on multiple models, how the central nervous system (CNS) controls this combination is not fully addressed. In this study, we utilize an Inverse Optimal Control (IOC) framework in order to find the combination of those internal models and how this combination changes for different reaching tasks. We conducted an experiment where participants executed a comprehensive set of free-space reaching motions. The results show that there is a trade-off between kinematics and dynamics based controllers depending on the reaching task. In addition, this trade-off depends on the initial and final arm configurations, which in turn affect the musculoskeletal load to be controlled. Given this insight, we further provide a discomfort metric to demonstrate its influence on the contribution of different inverse internal models. This formulation together with our analysis not only support the multiple internal models (MIMs) hypothesis but also suggest a hierarchical framework for the control of human reaching motions by the CNS

Norm Optimal Iterative Learning Control with Application to Problems in Accelerator based Free Electron Lasers and Rehabilitation Robotics

This paper gives an overview of the theoretical basis of the norm optimal approach to iterative learning control followed by results that describe more recent work which has experimentally benchmarking the performance that can be achieved. The remainder of then paper then describes its actual application to a physical process and a very novel application in stroke rehabilitation

Human and robot arm control using the minimum variance principle

Many computational models of human upper limb movement successfully capture some features of human movement, but often lack a compelling biological basis. One that provides such a basis is Harris and Wolpert’s minimum variance model. In this model, the variance of the hand at the end of a movement is minimised, given that the controlling signal is subject to random noise with zero mean and standard deviation proportional to the signal’s amplitude. This criterion offers a consistent explanation for several movement characteristics. This work formulates the minimum variance model into a form suitable for controlling a robot arm. This implementation allows examination of the model properties, specifically its applicability to producing human-like movement. The model is subsequently tested in areas important to studies of human movement and robotics, including reaching, grasping, and action perception. For reaching, experiments show this formulation successfully captures the characteristics of movement, supporting previous results. Reaching is initially performed between two points, but complex trajectories are also investigated through the inclusion of via- points. The addition of a gripper extends the model, allowing production of trajectories for grasping an object. Using the minimum variance principle to derive digit trajectories, a quantitative explanation for the approach of digits to the object surface is provided. These trajectories also exhibit human-like spatial and temporal coordination between hand transport and grip aperture. The model’s predictive ability is further tested in the perception of human demonstrated actions. Through integration with a system that performs perception using its motor system offline, in line with the motor theory of perception, the model is shown to correlate well with data on human perception of movement. These experiments investigate and extend the explanatory and predictive use of the model for human movement, and demonstrate that it can be suitably formulated to produce human-like movement on robot arms.Open acces