IMU-Based Wrist Rotation Control of a Transradial Myoelectric Prosthesis

• Published in: IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 419 - 427
• Main Authors: Bennett, Daniel A., Goldfarb, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01.02.2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Adult; Algorithms; Amputation; Amputees; Angular velocity; Arm; Artificial Limbs; Assessments; Biomechanical Phenomena; Electromyography; Electromyography - methods; Female; Hand; Hand - physiology; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Male; medical robotics; Motion measurement; Myoelectricity; Prostheses; Prosthesis Design; Prosthetics; Prototypes; Psychomotor Performance; Rotation; Semiconductor device measurement; Shoulder; Velocity; Wrist; Wrist - physiology; Wrist Joint; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1534-4320; 1558-0210; 1558-0210
• DOI: 10.1109/TNSRE.2017.2682642

This paper describes a control method intended to facilitate improved control of a myoelectric prosthesis containing a wrist rotator. Rather than exclusively utilizing electromyogram (EMG) for the control of all myoelectric components (e.g., a hand and a wrist), the proposed controller utilizes inertial measurement (from six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU)) to sense upper arm abduction/adduction, and uses this input to command a wrist rotation velocity. As such, the controller essentially substitutes shoulder abduction/adduction in place of agonist/antagonist EMG to control wrist angular velocity, which preserves EMG for control of the hand (or other arm components). As a preliminary assessment of efficacy, the control method was implemented on a transradial prosthesis prototype with a powered wrist rotator and hand, and experimentally assessed on five able-bodied subjects who wore the prototype using an able-bodied adaptor and one transradial amputee subject while performing assessments representative of activities of daily living. The assessments compared the (timed) performance of the combined EMG/ IMU-based control method with a (conventional) sequential EMG control approach. Results of the assessment indicate that the able-bodied subjects were able to perform the tasks 33% faster on average with the EMG/IMU-based method, relative to a conventional sequential EMG method. The same assessment was subsequently conducted using a single transradial amputee subject, which resulted in similar performance trends, although with a somewhat lessened effect size-specifically, the amputee subject was on average 22% faster in performing tasks with the IMU-based controller.