Rehabilitation Research and Development Center
The Rehabilitation R&D Center is located in Building 51 of the Palo Alto Division of the VA Health Care System. Dedicated in September of 1980, the original 6,400 square foot building was expanded in 1992 by approximately 12,000 square feet, bringing it to its current area of almost 19,000 square feet. This building houses offices and laboratories for research of motor control, experimental mechanics and skeletal biomechanics; prototyping facilities to design and fabricate research models; and an extensive computer facility. This environment fosters collaboration and daily interaction between all segments of Center personnel. Other laboratories are located within the VA Palo Alto facility and at Stanford University. This section describes the physical facilities of the Rehab R& D Center, and other associated laboratories.

Motor Control Laboratory
The Motor Control Laboratory supports research on the coordination of human lower extremity muscles during functional activities such as standing, walking, and pedaling in able-bodied and disabled individuals. Laboratory resources include devices that are designed to enable the researcher to observe functional activities under experimentally controlled conditions.These devices are instrumented for measurement and analysis of kinesiological data including kinematic (trajectory) and kinetic (force) variables. The measurement systems include a three-dimensional, video-based motion analysis system; multi-channel electromyographic recording systems; three-dimensional force plate systems; and other specialized motion monitoring transducers.

Neuromuscular Electrophysiology Laboratory
The Neuromuscular Electrophysiology Laboratory collects and analyzes human neuromuscular electrophysiology data. Its capabilities parallel those of clinical electromyography laboratories. Study focuses on methods used to stimulate and record from both nerve and muscle tissue as well as the associated computer peripheral devices to collect, analyze and record this data.

Experimental Mechanics Laboratory
The Experimental Mechanics Laboratory is dedicated to mechanical testing of skeletal biological tissues and as clinical orthopaedic devices and procedures. The materials testing equipment includes two servohydraulic loading systems, two personal computers for data acquisition and analysis, a lathe/mill and bandsaw for specimen preparation, and a variety of instrumentation for assembly, fixturing, data measurement and display. Additional histological equipment includes a low-speed diamond saw, and a polishing wheel.

Skeletal Biomechanics Laboratory
The Skeletal Biomechanics Laboratory, located adjacent to the Experimental Mechanics Laboratory, provides further analysis capabilities in a clean, dust-free environment. Laboratory resources include several specialized microscopes as well as a Macintosh-based imaging system for semi-automatic bone histomorphometry interfaced with a Zeiss microscope and a black and white monitor.

Prototyping Facilities
The Center has facilities to design and fabricate models and prototypes for use in research and development activities. This capability includes prototypes which are electronic, electromechanical or mechanical in nature.

The facilities include a full machine shop containing milling machine, lathe, band saw, drill press and related tools; an area for electronic work and test equipment to produce components and circuits; a large working area for construction of prototypes using wood, plastics and metal; and state-of-the-art CAD equipment.

Computer Facility
The Rehab R&D Center is served by workstations and personal computers connected by Ethernet and AppleTalk. This combined local area network is then gated to the Internet through Stanford University. There are also various stand-alone personal computers used in task-specific applications. Each center employee is provided an account on one or more of the local workstations. Through this account the employee can access electronic mail as well as programs to do text processing and high level applications.

The Ethernet and AppleTalk segments of the LAN are bridged together to allow hosts on each net to access and share resources such as scanners, printers, digitizers, discs, and tape drives. The AppleTalk segment of the network consists of approximately 40 Macintosh computers as well as several types of laser printers, digitizers and scanners. These computers are used for document preparation, technical illustration, spreadsheet calculation, and statistical data analyses.

The Ethernet segment consists of Sun, Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, and Silicon Graphic work stations used for special purpose applications.

Document Production Laboratory
Computer graphic, desktop publishing and simple video production equipment are availiable in the Document Production Laboratory. These are used for timely production of technical presentation materials and to support and promote the Rehab R&D Center work. Investigators and technical staff are able to produce professional quality poster and exhibit displays, video reports, mulitmedia programs, and WWW documents using these facilities.

Human-Machine Systems Laboratory
The Human-Machine Systems Laboratory is devoted to design,fabrication and testing of new devices for assessing, treating or compensating for disabilities. Additional space is set aside for student offices, library, and CAD workstation.

There are three workbenches for electronic and strain gage assembly, equipped with oscilloscopes, soldering stations, power supplies, a logic analyzer, microscope and other test instruments. An industrial sewing machine is used for making straps and harness for orthoses. A steel surface table is used for mechanical testing and fixturing. Three IBM compatible computers are equipped with analog/digital data acquisition boards and software. Two video cameras and a VCR/editor are used to record human subject trials in three dimensions.

Rehabilitation Robotics Laboratory
This lab supports the robotics-related activities of the RRD Center, including VTF, MIME and F-PAT.

There is one DeVAR-equipped multimedia workstation from the Vocational Training Facility (VTF) Project available for use by persons with high-level quadriplegia, and a non-robot-equipped VTF workstation for general staff use. The lab has two other PUMA-260 robots being used in the Mirror-Image Manipulation Enabler (MIME) Project. There are three Intel-based computers for data analysis and two MAC II-fx computers with Radius cards for on-screen video display of images from a laserdisc player. The lab has two Hi-8 camcorders and videodecks for video-based computer control of linear video. This capability supports the Functional Performance Assessment Tool (F-PAT) Project.