Falk Laboratory
Integrative Neural Engineering & Rehabilitation Laboratory

Our laboratory is proud to be part of the Falk Neurorehabilitation Engineering Research Center (FNERC) here at Marquette University. This research center, funded by the Falk Medical Research Trust, is dedicated to research in the advancement of rehabilitation interventions for those people who have a neural disability. The FNERC is co-directed by three faculty members in the Biomedical Engineering Department Dr. Robert Scheidt, Dr. Brian Schmit, and Dr. Jack Winters. The over 5,000 square feet of laboratory space includes a gait lab complete with a six camera Vicon motion analysis system and two inground force places. High precision motion analysis can able be done in front of our three camera Optotrak (Northern Digital) system and subjects can interact with projected imagines on our touch screen Smartboard. This laboratory would be complete without a 16 channel electromyography (EMG) system (Bortech Biomedical Ltd) and our new eight channel wireless EMG system (Delsys). Take some time to read about our current research projects in the FNERC.

Passive Robotic Device

The arm system was designed and built by Dylan Snyder. It is made of mostly aluminum and keeps track of the hand's forces and the hand's position in three dimensional space during arm movements. The arm system is able to track this by way of four optical encoders and one load cell. The device was designed with an arm tray for the subject to keep their arm in during the experiments. When subjects are secured in the device, they can move their arm around in a horizontal plane and translate it vertically due to the three rotational joints and one translational joint. A weight stack (not shown) can be attached to the cable threaded through the pulley system and allow varying amounts of weight to support the arm. The arm system consists of a projector that can be used to display different things (home position, target position, hand position) on a screen that is blocking the subject’s view of his or her arm. The device is also able to incorporate many perturbations such as force fields due to magnets, elastic bands, and ropes.