Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Sliding Mode Control of Multi-Joint Movement Using Intraspinal Microstimulation

During the last decade, intraspinal microstimulation (ISMS) has been proposed as a potential technique for restoring motor function in paralyzed limbs. A major challenge to restoration of a desired functional limb movement through the use of ISMS is the development of a robust control strategy for determining the stimulation patterns. Accurate and stable control of limbs by functional intraspinal microstimulation is a very difficult task because neuromusculoskeletal systems have significant nonlinearity, time variability, large latency and time constant, and muscle fatigue. Furthermore, the controller must be able to compensate the effect of the dynamic interaction between motor neuron pools and electrode sites during ISMS. In this paper, we present a robust strategy for multi-joint control through ISMS in which the system parameters are adapted online and the controller requires no offline training phase. The method is based on the combination of sliding mode control with fuzzy logic and neural control. Extensive experiments on six rats are provided to demonstrate the robustness, stability, and tracking accuracy of the proposed method. Despite the complexity of the spinal neuronal networks, our results show that the proposed strategy could provide accurate tracking control with fast convergence and could generate control signals to compensate for the effects of muscle fatigue.