The Vite Model: A Neural Command Circuit for Generating Arm and Articulator Trajectories,

A major issue in research on the neural basis of motor control is the nature of movement planning in systems with many degrees of freedom for example, an arm with many controlling muscles acting at several joints or a speech system with many articulators. All solutions to the planning problem depend upon assumptions about both the mechanics of the effectors and the sensory and computational resources. For example, if an arm has few mechanical degrees of freedom, than the serial preplanning required to work around the arms inherent constraints becomes a salient issue. Alternatively, if the arm has many degrees of freedom, the computational load imposed by the need for simultaneous coordination becomes a salient issue. If the arm is part of a body that grows, or if a robotic arm must remain in service without external maintenance despite unpredictable changes in its mechanical parameters, then yet another issue comes into view autonomous recalibration.