Motion control of the rabbit ankle joint using a flat interface nerve electrode

A flat interface nerve electrode (FINE) improves spatial fascicular selectivity by reshaping a peripheral nerve and realigning the fascicles inside the nerve trunk. Enhanced fascicular selectivity enables the control of different muscles with a single electrode. However, building a control algorithm using a multi-contact nerve electrode is a challenging problem due to the complexities of the neuromuscular skeletal systems. We developed a motion control algorithm for the neuromuscular skeletal systems using a FINE. The proposed control algorithm separates the static and dynamic properties and finds an inverse model efficiently with little prior knowledge of the system. The algorithm was tested on the motion control of the rabbit ankle joint with a FINE placed on the sciatic nerve. The results show good tracking performance of the proposed control algorithm.