Rapid Prototyping for Functional Electrical Stimulation Control

Philip A. Tresadern, Sibylle B. Thies, Laurence P. J. Kenney, David Howard, John Yannis Goulermas

Abstract: The clinical set-up tool integrates fast parameter selection and a user-friendly interface to help electrical muscle stimulators more efficiently treat patients with neurological injuries. A key challenge in increasing functional electrical stimulation systems' clinical acceptance is facilitating or automating parameter selection, optimization, and programming to make the underlying engineering transparent to the user. To this end, we present the clinical set-up tool (CST), a finite-state-machine-based controller that integrates accurate, automatic parameter optimization in an intuitive user interface. Unlike other approaches, we employ a numerical algorithm that uses real-life data and well-defined criteria to rapidly optimize parameter values.