Our research interest focuses on human movement, which is an important aspect of human life because it ensures physical mobility and thus interaction with the environment. Against this background, the goal of our research is to understand the functioning of human movements, i.e. the interaction of the nervous system and the musculoskeletal system, which enables coordinated movement behavior. To be able to study human movements, the BioMotion Center has a biomechanics lab and a robotics lab where most of our team's research takes place.
 

Labs

Biomechanics lab
The biomechanics lab enables a comprehensive investigation of human every day and sports movements on a mechanical (e.g. internal joint loads) and neurophysiological level (e.g. muscle activity). Our experiments concentrate on locomotion tasks (e.g. standing up and sitting down, walking, walking turns, stair walking, walking with inclines, running, running with inclines, cutting movements) and balance tasks (e.g. static and dynamic tasks while standing or during locomotion such as tripping or slipping). The focus on these two model tasks is due to their relevance in everyday life and sport. Walking in its various forms is an important part of human life and often causes problems in old age and with existing impairments (e.g. osteoarthritis), which can have a negative impact on people's independence and quality of life. Running in its various forms, on the other hand, is a key performance component in sport, not only in athletics, but also in sports games and many other sports. Balance tasks are also highly relevant to society, as the risk of falling increases significantly in old age, for example, and falls can lead to injuries, hospitalization and, in the worst-case scenario, a loss of independence in older people. In addition, balance performance is of great importance in many sports (e.g. apparatus gymnastics, skiing or surfing). Both model tasks are also highly relevant for the development of assistive robotic systems (e.g. exoskeletons).

Robotics lab
The robotics lab has two robotic interfaces (KINARM End-Point Lab and BioMotionBot) whose end points are grasped by the participants. The participants are presented with a movement task via a monitor or a real-time virtual reality interface, which they have to solve by moving the robot arm in a targeted manner. The robots can simulate the physical properties of objects and change them in real time, so that the participants have to adapt their movements to the changed physical properties of the simulated object while interacting with the robotic arm. This situation occurs in real life, for example, when a craftsman buys a new tool or a tennis player buys a new tennis racket. In both cases, the new tools usually have slightly different physical properties (e.g. weight). Consequently, the robots enable us to study the adaptation of movements to new conditions using the example of arm movements. The robots have open programming interfaces that allow different movement tasks to be created. In addition, they use precise sensors to provide force and position data for our analyses and have interfaces that allow us to integrate other measuring devices (e.g. electroencephalography or electromyography) into the experimental setup for more comprehensive analyses.

Lab equipment

Motek Medical M-Gait Treadmill System
The M-Gait is 3D instrumented dual-belt treadmill with a VR interface that enables us to create diverse locomotion and balance tasks for our research.

Biomechanics
Measuring tools: 10 Vicon Vantage V8 cameras, 6 Vicon Vero v2.2 cameras, 2 Vicon Vue cameras, 2 Vicon Lock Lab with A/D converter (each 64 channels), Noraxon Ultium Motion IMU system, 4 force plates (AMTI & in-house development), instrumented stairs (in-house development), novel emed® pressure distribution plate, novel pedar® pressure distribution insole, novel pliance® pressure distribution on surfaces & IsoMed 2000 (D. & R. Ferstl GmbH)
Modeling tools: alaska/Dynamicus, OpenSim, Vicon Plug-In Gait & Motek Human Body Model

Neurophysiology
Noraxon Ultium wireless EMG system (16 channels), Noraxon Telemyo 2400TG2 EMG system (16 channels) & Brain Products EEG system (16 channels)

Postural Control
BIOSWING Posturomed (with in-house developed perturbation module), Lafayette Instrument 16030 stability platform (with in-house developed online feedback system), forward-fall simulation tool (in-house development) & brake-and-release tool to induce perturbations during walking (in-house development)

Robotic Interfaces
KINARM End-Point Lab (with Virtual Reality Display & lower arm support) & BioMotionBot (Bartenbach et al., 2013)

Exoskeleton
Auxivo LiftSuit 2.0