Improvement of hand functions of spinal cord injury patients with electromyography-driven hand exoskeleton: A feasibility study

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 inj...

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Published in:Wearable technologies Vol. 1; p. e8
Main Authors: Yun, Youngmok, Esmatloo, Paria, Dancausse, Sarah, Serrato, Alfredo, Merring, Curtis A., Agarwal, Priyanshu, Deshpande, Ashish D.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Cambridge University Press 2020
Subjects:
Activities of daily living
Actuation
Algorithms
Artificial neural networks
Classification
Compliance
Disabilities
Electromyography
Exoskeletons
Feasibility studies
Fingers & toes
Forearm
grasp
Hand (anatomy)
hand exoskeleton
Muscles
Performance evaluation
Robots
Spinal cord injuries
spinal cord injury
spinal cord injury
grasp
hand exoskeleton
electromyography
ISSN:2631-7176, 2631-7176
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary: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.
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Youngmok Yun, Youngjin Na, and Paria Esmatloo equally contributed to this study.
ISSN:2631-7176
2631-7176
DOI:10.1017/wtc.2020.9