Human Movement Biomechanics and Biomechatronics

Instructor: Kamran Iqbal, Ph.D.

Course Description:

Biomechanics refers to study of biological movement principles in a mechanics background. Biomechanical models of motor control are derived from physiological principles and complement laboratory studies to promote our understanding of the underlying physiology.

Biomechatronics is the growing interdisciplinary science that integrates mechanical engineering, electronics, computer science, and embedded systems with biology and neuroscience to develop prostheses and assistive technologies for patients with neuromuscular-skeletal disorders. Interest in biomechatronics has grown steadily in the past decade. Major efforts to develop next generation prosthetic devices and interfaces are currently underway in the research laboratories in different parts of the world (MIT, CMU, Stanford, Utah, Delft, etc.).

This course aims to provide an understanding of biomechanical and neuro-scientific principles underlying human movement. Additionally, the course will cover state-of-the-art in the field of Biomechatronics including assistive technologies, prosthetic devices, rehabilitation robots, and exoskeletons.

Course Objectives:

1. To study biomechanical and neuro-scientific principles governing human movement.2. To learn how biomechatronic devices and prostheses can help amputees regain motor skills.

Course Topics:

1. Introduction to Biomechatronics2. Musculoskeletal mechanics3. Review of multi-body dynamics4. Principles of motor control and sensorimotor integration5. Simulation of human movement6. Human locomotion and gait studies7. Motor control in patients with neurological disorders8. Artificial and assistive motor control9. Myoelectric control of prostheses

10. Rehabilitation robotics

Course Reading:

A course package has been prepared and will be distributed to students. The package includes several important review papers on the optics covered in the course.

The primary reading for the course is the Delft Biomechatronics Reader and lectures from Delft University: http://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/biomedical-engineering/bio-mechatronics/lectures/

Further course references are:1. Delft Biomechanics Reader: http://stiff-project.eu/fileadmin/biomechanics/HMC_Reader.pdf2. David Winter, Biomechanics and Control of Human Movement, Wiley, 20093. Roger Enoka, Neuromechanics of Human Movement, World Scientific, 20084. http://www.xsens.com/images/stories/PDF/THESIS_Martijn_Klein_Horsman.pdf 5. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~hgeyer/Teaching_16-899B.html

Course Assessment

1. Some homework exercises will be assigned as part of the course. These exercises are meant for learning purposes. They will not be graded.

2. Graduate students enrolled in the course will be required to do independent research on a course related topic and submit a report (5-6 pages) at the end of the course. The reports are due on Aug 28.

About the Instructor:

Professor Kamran Iqbal obtained his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Ohio State University in 1992. He has since held teaching and/or research appointments at the Ohio State University, Northwestern University, University of California, Riverside, and California State University at Fullerton, National University of Science and Technology (Pak), and GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (Pak). He is currently employed as professor of Systems Engineering in the College of Engineering and Information Technology at University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Dr. Iqbal’s research is focused at taking a control theoretic approach to investigate biomechanical and neuro-scientific principals underlying regulation of posture and movement in humans. His wider research interests include biomechanical control systems, myoelectric control of prostheses, biomedical engineering, computational intelligence, robotics, and complex systems. Dr. Iqbal is a senior member of IEEE, member of IET (UK), IASTED, ASEE, and Sigma Xi (past president of the Central Arkansas Chapter). More information about his activities is available at http://ualr.edu/systemsengineering/personnel/faculty/kamran-iqbal/.