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. 2023 Mar 28;23(7):3522.
doi: 10.3390/s23073522.

ICEP: An Instrumented Cycling Ergometer Platform for the Assessment of Advanced FES Strategies

Petar Kajganic  1 , Vance Bergeron  1 , Amine Metani  1
Affiliations

ICEP: An Instrumented Cycling Ergometer Platform for the Assessment of Advanced FES Strategies

Petar Kajganic et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Functional electrical stimulation (FES) cycling has seen an upsurge in interest over the last decade. The present study describes the novel instrumented cycling ergometer platform designed to assess the efficiency of electrical stimulation strategies. The capabilities of the platform are showcased in an example determining the adequate stimulation patterns for reproducing a cycling movement of the paralyzed legs of a spinal cord injury (SCI) subject.

Methods: Two procedures have been followed to determine the stimulation patterns: (1) using the EMG recordings of the able-bodied subject; (2) using the recordings of the forces produced by the SCI subject's stimulated muscles.

Results: the stimulation pattern derived from the SCI subject's force output was found to produce 14% more power than the EMG-derived stimulation pattern.

Conclusions: the cycling platform proved useful for determining and assessing stimulation patterns, and it can be used to further investigate advanced stimulation strategies.

Keywords: FES cycling; cycling ergometer; electrical stimulation patterns; functional electrical stimulation (FES); spinal cord injury (SCI); stimulation strategy assessment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Sketch of the wall-mounted instrumented cycling ergometer platform.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A custom connecting plate attached to the force/torque measuring pedal.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Photo of an SCI subject using the platform from the Carbontrike.
Figure 4
Figure 4
EMG recordings of the five main muscle groups used by the able-bodied subject during cycling (arbitrary normalized unit).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Tangential and normal forces Ft & Fn.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Passive cycling, active cycling and muscle force profile of the right quadricep of the SCI subject.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Stimulation patterns for left and right quadriceps derived from EMG recordings on the able-bodied subject (left) and from MFP measurement on the SCI subject (right).
Figure 8
Figure 8
Direct measurement of the angular shift at 50 rpm for the SCI subject.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Difference between the target and measured cadence in percentage.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Passive, active and the net-force produced by the left and right quadriceps of the SCI subject stimulated by the EMG pattern. Green and red lines represent the start and stop angles of the delay-compensated EMG pattern, respectively.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Passive, active and the net-force produced by the left and right quadriceps of the SCI subject stimulated by the MFP pattern. Green and red lines represent the start and stop angles of the delay-compensated MFP pattern, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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