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 A testing apparatus was developed to investigate the feasibility of muscle actuated robotics.

An apparatus for characterization and control of isolated muscle

An apparatus for characterization and control of muscle tissue is developed. The system is intended to serve as an experimental platform for implementing a wide variety of muscle control and identification studies that will serve as fundamental investigations of muscle mechanics, energetics, functional electrical stimulation, and fatigue. The apparatus is capable of providing generalized mechanical boundary conditions to muscle tissue as well as implementing real-time feedback control via electrical stimulation. These features are accomplished by having two real-time control loops running in parallel. The first loop ensures that the mechanical response of the servo simulates the dynamics of the associated muscle boundary condition. For example, if the desired boundary condition is a linear spring, the motion of the end points of the muscle tendon is controlled to be proportional to the force generated by the muscle. The second loop implements the electrical stimulus control based on measurements of the muscle’s mechanical response. This loop offers simultaneous real-time modulation of pulse-width, amplitude, frequency, and number of pulses per cycle.