Section: Application Domains

Objective quantification and understanding of movement disorders

One main advantage of developping a model based on a physical description of the system is that the parameters are meaningful. Therefore, these parameters when identified on a given individual (valid or deficient), give objective and quantitative data that characterize the system and thus can be used for diagnosis purposes.

Modelling provides a way to simulate movements for a given patient and therefore based on an identification procedure it becomes possible to analyse and then understand his pathology. In order to describe complex pathology such as spasticity that appears on paraplegic patients, one needs not only to model the biomechanics parts - including muscles -, but also parts of the peripheral nervous system - including natural sensors - to assess reflex problems. One important application is then to explore deficiencies globally due to both muscles and peripheral neural nets disorders.