User-Centered Design of a Dexterous Hand Prosthesis: Hierarchical Sensorimotor Controller Based on the Three-Axis Tactile Feedback and EMG Decoder.

Source: PubMed, NCBI / U.S. National Library of Medicine

Humans can skillfully grasp a wide variety of things without crushing or dropping them, thanks to their tactile sensory abilities and sensorimotor reflexes. Moreover, humans are not only proficient at reaching and grasping objects but also do so effortlessly, as a large part of their sensorimotor processing occurs subconsciously. However, it is a significant challenge to re - establish the tactile - based sensorimotor reflex abilities for dexterous hand prostheses. This paper proposes a hierarchical sensorimotor controller based on three-axis tactile feedback and an EMG decoder. This work aims to introduce our methodology for tactile information processing and sensory-motor coordination, which has been integrated into the architecture of the artificial tactile system. The proposed controller enables the dexterous hand prosthesis to detect slips and adapt the grasp force to prevent slipping. The experiments have shown that the proposed dexterous hand prosthesis with a hierarchical sensorimotor controller based on three-axis tactile feedback and an EMG decoder can significantly improve the grasping success rate and reduce muscle fatigue.