Design and experiment of a wearable functional electrical stimulation instrument for upper limbs

Abstract

Functional electrical stimulation has become a commonly used and effective method for the rehabilitation of stroke in hospitals. However, due to the large size of the therapeutic apparatus, the fixed training location, and the single electrical stimulation mode, a wearable four-channel functional electrical stimulator based on the STM32 chip was designed to solve the above problems. It needs to be able to control the electrical stimulation mode and parameters in real-time, and also to meet the upper limb rehabilitation training of patients at home. The electric stimulator system includes the STM32 main control chip, power management module, boost module, electric stimulation drive circuit, and serial screen human-computer interaction module. Experimental results show that the instrument can effectively cause muscle contraction, output electrical stimulation waveforms correctly, and achieve the curative effect of rehabilitation therapy.

Keywords

• functional electrical stimulation
• electrical stimulation parameters
• upper limb
• hardware