Advanced Platform Technology Center

Advanced Prosthetics Laboratory

Located in the basement of the LSCVAMC

The Advanced Prosthetics Laboratory (APL) occupies approximately 1,100 square feet at Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, under the direction of Dr. Ronald Triolo and Dr. Musa Audu, and is dedicated to the development and testing of systems that afford natural control and sensory feedback to users of upper and lower limb prostheses. This facility is furnished with state-of-the-art instrumentation for the biomechanical and functional assessment of human movement, muscle function and visual-motor coordination. The laboratory includes a Biodex Pro System 3 robotic dynamometer for measuring active and passive joint moments, a Neurocom Balance Master system (see photo above) for probing the underlying mechanisms of standing and seated stability, tethered EMG amplifiers (Cambridge Electronics) with stimulus blanking circuitry and wireless EMG data acquisition (Delsys, Inc.), and a V-Gait system, a computer-assisted rehabilitation environment network. The V-Gait virtual reality system that employs interactive, real-time visual and auditory feedback for evaluation, training and rehabilitation. The staff consists of scientists, clinicians and engineers who seek to aid those living with limb loss, spinal cord injury, vestibular disorders, the after effects of stroke and traumatic brain injury, and other injuries or pathologies that hamper mobility. The system includes an instrumented dual-belt treadmill with a virtual environment synchronized to a 10-camera motion capture system, 3 video cameras and a suite of user friendly building blocks for low cost USB sensing and control. We can also link our system with surface electromyography and segmental inertial measurements to measure and display biomechanical parameters in real-time, including stride length, step width, step frequency, symmetry, joint kinematics and kinetics. This real-time capability enables adjustments, analysis and training in the same session.

We also have a wide variety of tailored treatment and assessment virtual reality protocols which can use stimulating games/coaching. There is also a 10-camera Vicon MX 40 digital motion capture system with real-time output capabilities and custom xPC Target Matlab-based (Mathworks, Inc.) real-time stimulus control apparatus capable of open or closed loop control of surface, percutaneous, or implanted electrodes. In addition, the laboratory houses a RT300 electrical stimulation exercise bicycle (Restorative Therapeutics, Inc.), several adapted recumbent tricycles, and a ReWalk robotic exoskeleton (Argo, Inc.).