Title
Development and evaluation of simplified EMG prosthetic hands
Abstract
Millions of physical disabilities, who have lost a hand or both hands, are in need of prosthetic hands not only for decoration but also for the functions to help them with basic daily activities. Although EMG prosthetic hands are being extensively studied to satisfy this need, most of them are too expensive to be economically available, difficult to operate and maintain by a user him/herself, or over heavy for longtime wearing. The aim of this study is therefore to develop a simplified EMG prosthetic hand (sim-EMGPH) to solve these problems. The sim-EMGPH consists of five parts: a lightweight robotic hand with two motors to realize the most frequent hand activities, a highly stretchable cosmetic glove with little load on the motors, an EMG measurement system including sensors with high wearability made of soft conductive materials, a controller implemented by a 32-bit microprocessor which performs EMG signal processing, pattern recognition, and motor control, and a human-friendly tablet interface for the user to operate the sim-EMGPH by him/herself. We manufactured three sim-EMGPHs for three subjects: two with congenital upper limb deficiency and one with upper limb amputation. Free task experiments showed that the subjects could operate the sim-EMGPHs by themselves to perform basic activities of daily living. Limitations revealed and improvement plans are also discussed in this paper.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1109/ROBIO.2014.7090524
ROBIO
Keywords
Field
DocType
upper limb amputation,prosthetics,congenital upper limb deficiency,sim-emgph,lightweight robotic hand,sensor,emg measurement system,grippers,electromyography,sensors,handicapped aids,simplified emg prosthetic hand,robots,skin,electrodes
Control theory,Activities of daily living,Robotic hand,Simulation,Microprocessor,Electromyography,Motor control,Conductive materials,Engineering,Robot
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.36
4
Authors
10