Facilities and Equipment | NeuroRehabilitation Across the Lifespan Laboratory

The NeuRAL Lab is located in Cooke Hall and includes the following equipment:

Kinarm Exoskeleton

Kinarm Exoskeleton Robot with Integrated Gaze Tracker

We use the Kinarm Exoskeleton robot as a versatile robotic system to study sensory and motor performance. Participants sit in the wheelchair base and the linkages are adjusted to fit their arms. Participants then interact with a virtual reality screen to complete different tasks that measure aspects of sensory and motor performance. The Kinarm records the motion of the arms and can also apply forces to the arms or move the arms. Unlike many robotic devices, the Kinarm is bilateral, allowing us to study bilateral coordination. The Kinarm also has the advantage of showing visual stimuli in the same plane as the arms, which makes interacting with the system very intuitive for participants. In our research, we use both standardized Kinarm tasks and develop our own custom tasks to answer different questions about sensory and motor performance. The Kinarm can be used in adults and children over the age of 6 years.

Accelerometry

We believe we also need to understand how individuals move when they aren’t in the lab! We use wrist-worn accelerometers to measure arm movements in daily life. Our lab uses Actigraph GT9X Link devices, which look like watches and can be worn on both wrists at the same time to tell us how much individuals move their arms separately and together. Actigraphs can be used in children and adults of all ages.