RatCar: A whole-body neuromuscular locomotion prosthetic device with exoskeletal robotic limbs for a rat

Abstract

RatCar; a vehicular BMI device for a rat has been developed to substitute natural limbs of the rat. The device aims for a future wheelchair controlled by motor commands acquired directly from human nervous system. It also contributes to the neuroscience through observing the brain functionality and its plastic changes in the presence of external inputs and outputs. A basic idea of the system is to estimate locomotion state according to the neural signals either in the brain or in the peripheral nerve fibers. In the first design, a linear correlation model estimated locomotion velocity and directional changes according to neural spikes in the motor cortex. The results were applied to control the vehicular device which mount a rat on its body. Then, the extended model in a state space representation form achieved an adaptive estimation. Currently, our system further branched to include a micro-electrical stimulator for correlation induction, and exoskeletal robotic limbs. This paper overviews the structure of the system, and describes a draft methodology of correlation induction and controlling robotic limbs.