Learning about the spinal and neuronal control of movement has been really interesting. As an engineer in Bionics, I have always been interested in the motor system and how it works. It was even a great coincidence that we could explore this system at the same time the Cybathlon was having place in Sweden. How are these two thing related?
The development of rehabilitation and adaptive habilitation technology is relying more and more in the neuroscience of movement control. The dream of all of us at the crossroad between digital technology, robotics, biology and medicine is the implementation of successful and reliable limb prosthesis, exoskeletons, and technical aids in general. For that purpose, technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics are essential, but it is also necessary to develop new approaches like brain-machine and brain-nerve interfaces. Then, all the actual and future knowledge of the motor system is required to make it possible.
One of the most interesting topic we learned, was the notion of rhythm and the synergy of opposing reflexes that probably make the walking process possible. Human walking is a very sophisticated movement, that is currently acceptably modeled but is not reproducible in a mechanical system. Moreover, the development of walking human scale androids is one of the most challenging tasks in the field of autonomous robotics. There are of course some amazing examples of robots that walk very well, and are even capable of doing some acrobatics, but that is not a feature easily achievable. I am now wondering, how could be the new approaches to model and solve this kind of movement control if this reflex mechanism is imitated?
Seeing the competitors at Cybathlon trying to solve “simple” and everyday tasks helped by all those robotic, expensive, clumsy, state of the art technological aids made me think on the long path we still have to travel in basic neuroscience, applied neuroscience and, of course, engineering, in order to make the dream real. I really hope that in the future we will be able to build adequate technology that could help all the people struggling with mobility to be more independent and get the dignity they deserve.
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