University of Southampton

Interdisciplinary research in the field of Rehabilitation and engineering is embedded in the University’s culture and fostered by the Life Sciences Interface (LSI) Programme (http://www.lsi.soton.ac.uk). In 2003 the University invested over £5 million in the LSI, including the appointment of three Roberts Fellows and a cross disciplinary Graduate Training Programme (GTP). Research is supported by the University’s Research and Enterprise Services and The Centre for Enterprise and Innovation (CEI). Rehabilitation robotics research is led by the School of Health Professions and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHPRS) and Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) ECS achieved 5* ratings in the 2001 RAE and have now been rated as 6*. SHPRS is one of the largest academic rehabilitation centres in the UK and received the second highest grading for an allied health department in the 2001 RAE. Jane Burridge leads the multidisciplinary Motor Learning and Control (MLC) Research Programme in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences (SHPRS). She has particular interests in understanding muscle activation patterns during movement and in electrical stimulation (FES) to facilitate functional movement following stroke or spinal cord injury. Her research is supported by the EPSRC, the EU and the Alfred Mann Foundation (USA). Jane Burridge lectures at the EURON International Winter school on Rehabilitation Robotics held annually in Elche, Spain, is an expert reviewer for the EU and has for the last four years been on the review panel for the ICT programme Neurobotics. She also sits of the scientific Board of Directors of Hocoma – the Zurich based rehabilitation Robotics Company.

Currently our most important research study in rehabilitation robotics is using Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) which is mediated using Iterative learning Control (ILC) techniques. The project is led by Dr Burridge and is a close collaboration with SHPRS and ECS. The project team includes Ann-Marie Hughes as the clinical RF with the control engineering and FES work led by Eric Rogers, supported by Christopher Freeman, Paul Lewin and Paul Chappell.