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Merging motoneuron and postural synergies in prosthetic hand design for natural bionic interfacing

Authors: Capsi-Morales, Patricia; Barsakcioglu, Deren Y.; Catalano, Manuel G.; Grioli, Giorgio; Bicchi, Antonio; Farina, Dario;

Merging motoneuron and postural synergies in prosthetic hand design for natural bionic interfacing

Abstract

Despite the advances in bionic reconstruction of missing limbs, the control of robotic limbs is still limited and, in most cases, not felt to be as natural by users. In this study, we introduce a control approach that combines robotic design based on postural synergies and neural decoding of synergistic behavior of spinal motoneurons. We developed a soft prosthetic hand with two degrees of actuation that realizes postures in a two-dimensional linear manifold generated by two postural synergies. Through a manipulation task in nine participants without physical impairment, we investigated how to map neural commands to the postural synergies. We found that neural synergies outperformed classic muscle synergies in terms of dimensionality and robustness. Leveraging these findings, we developed an online method to map the decoded neural synergies into continuous control of the two-synergy prosthetic hand, which was tested on 11 participants without physical impairment and three prosthesis users in real-time scenarios. Results demonstrated that combined neural and postural synergies allowed accurate and natural control of coordinated multidigit actions (>90% of the continuous mechanical manifold could be reached). The target hit rate for specific hand postures was higher with neural synergies compared with muscle synergies, with the difference being particularly pronounced for prosthesis users (prosthesis users, 82.5% versus 35.0%; other participants, 79.5% versus 54.5%). This demonstration of codesign of multisynergistic robotic hands and neural decoding algorithms enabled users to achieve natural modular control to span infinite postures across a two-dimensional space and to execute dexterous tasks, including in-hand manipulation, not feasible with other approaches.

Country
Italy
Keywords

Male, Bionics, Adult, Motor Neurons, Posture, Artificial Limbs, Robotics, Middle Aged, Hand, Prosthesis Design, Biomechanical Phenomena, Young Adult, Adult; Algorithms; Artificial Limbs; Biomechanical Phenomena; Bionics; Electromyography; Female; Hand; Humans; Male; Motor Neurons; Muscle, Skeletal; Posture; Prosthesis Design; Robotics; Young Adult; Artificial limbs; Modular robots; Neural prostheses; Neurons; Robotic arms; Control approach; Degrees of actuations; Hand-design; Linear manifold; Muscle synergies; Neural decoding; Physical impairments; Prosthetic hands; Robotic design; Two-dimensional; adult; algorithm; biomechanics; body position; devices; electromyography; female; hand; human; innervation; limb prosthesis; male; motoneuron; physiology; prosthesis design; robotics; skeletal muscle; young adult;, Humans, Female, Muscle, Skeletal, Algorithms

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    selected citations
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    This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    15
    popularity
    This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
    Top 10%
    influence
    This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    Average
    impulse
    This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
    Top 10%
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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
15
Top 10%
Average
Top 10%
Green
bronze