This contribution considers a neuroprosthesis for people who have (partially) paralyzed hand functions as a typical result of a stroke or spinal cord injury. Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is applied to three forearm-muscles to induce artificial muscle contractions causing wrist extension/flexion and grasping, respectively. The aim is to control and stabilize the wrist joint angle. Herein, a co-activation to increase the stiffness of the wrist joint is applied to yield a better tolerance to external influences. Doing so, a better motor precision is expected compared to other approaches. To maintain the level of co-activation also under the progression of muscle fatigue, the muscle activation is estimated and controlled using an underlying feedback of the electrical muscle responses as caused by motor unit recruitment. The control system was preliminary tested on two healthy subjects, and a wrist positioning error of 4.5 degrees on average was obtained demonstrating the feasibility of the co-activation based approach.

Co-activation and eEMG-feedback for Restoring Hand-Functions

Ambrosini, E;Ferrante, S;Pedrocchi, A
2019-01-01

Abstract

This contribution considers a neuroprosthesis for people who have (partially) paralyzed hand functions as a typical result of a stroke or spinal cord injury. Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is applied to three forearm-muscles to induce artificial muscle contractions causing wrist extension/flexion and grasping, respectively. The aim is to control and stabilize the wrist joint angle. Herein, a co-activation to increase the stiffness of the wrist joint is applied to yield a better tolerance to external influences. Doing so, a better motor precision is expected compared to other approaches. To maintain the level of co-activation also under the progression of muscle fatigue, the muscle activation is estimated and controlled using an underlying feedback of the electrical muscle responses as caused by motor unit recruitment. The control system was preliminary tested on two healthy subjects, and a wrist positioning error of 4.5 degrees on average was obtained demonstrating the feasibility of the co-activation based approach.
2019
18th European Control Conference, ECC 2019
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
08795989.pdf

accesso aperto

: Publisher’s version
Dimensione 2.39 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
2.39 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/1119298
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 2
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 1
social impact