Abstract
We have developed a one-of-a-kind hand exoskeleton, called Maestro, which can power finger movements of those surviving severe disabilities to complete daily tasks using compliant joints. In this paper, we present results from an electromyography (EMG) control strategy conducted with spinal cord injury (SCI) patients (C5, C6, and C7) in which the subjects completed daily tasks controlling Maestro with EMG signals from their forearm muscles. With its compliant actuation and its degrees of freedom that match the natural finger movements, Maestro is capable of helping the subjects grasp and manipulate a variety of daily objects (more than 15 from a standardized set). To generate control commands for Maestro, an artificial neural network algorithm was implemented along with a probabilistic control approach to classify and deliver four hand poses robustly with three EMG signals measured from the forearm and palm. Increase in the scores of a standardized test, called the Sollerman hand function test, and enhancement in different aspects of grasping such as strength shows feasibility that Maestro can be capable of improving the hand function of SCI subjects.
Highlights
The number of spinal-cord-injury (SCI) patients in the United States was estimated to be 282,000 in 2016 (National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, 2005)
Healthy subjects We evaluated the performance of the surface electromyography (sEMG)-based classification from the artificial neural network (ANN) trained by 70% of data randomly selected from three training data sets
The main goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of the developed hand exoskeleton called Maestro for performing the hand function of spinal cord injury (SCI) patients using the proposed control method
Summary
The number of spinal-cord-injury (SCI) patients in the United States was estimated to be 282,000 in 2016 (National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, 2005). 45% of SCI patients have residual function in their arms and shoulders, but patients who have partially or totally lost their hand-control ability are unable to perform activities of daily living (ADL). Reduced grasping power and the inability to control the movements of the hand result in frustration because patients are unable to perform tasks such as grasping, lifting, and manipulating an object. Assistive exoskeletons have the potential to improve the quality of the life of the SCI patients by powering their hand movements to fulfill daily tasks. To provide assistance for functional tasks with hand, the control and communication between the exoskeleton and the user must allow for seamless and reliable transfer of information so that the motion Active hand exoskeletons have been developed to provide assistance for hand function (Heo et al, 2012; In et al, 2015; Zhou et al, 2019; Ferguson et al, 2020; Tran et al, 2020).
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