Energy Recuperation at the Hip Joint for Paraplegic Walking: Interaction Between Patient and Supportive Device.

For patients with lower limb paralysis, wearable robotic systems are becoming increasingly important for regaining mobility. The actuation of these systems is challenging because of the necessity to deliver high power within very limited space. However, not all patients need full support, as many patients have residual muscle function that can be applied for locomotion.

Prosthesis Control with an Implantable Multichannel Wireless Electromyography System for High-Level Amputees: A Large-Animal Study.

Background: Myoelectric prostheses lack a strong human-machine interface, leading to high abandonment rates in upper limb amputees. Implantable wireless electromyography systems improve control by recording signals directly from muscle, compared with surface electromyography. These devices do not exist for high amputation levels.

Long-term decoding of movement force and direction with a wireless myoelectric implant.

Objective: The ease of use and number of degrees of freedom of current myoelectric hand prostheses is limited by the information content and reliability of the surface electromyography (sEMG) signals used to control them. For example, cross-talk limits the capacity to pick up signals from small or deep muscles, such as the forearm muscles for distal arm amputations, or sites of targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR) for proximal amputations. Here we test if signals recorded from the fully implanted, induction-powered wireless Myoplant system allow long-term decoding of continuous as well as discrete movement parameters with better reliability than equivalent sEMG recordings.

A Novel Method to Generate Amplitude-Frequency Modulated Vibrotactile Stimulation.

The natural interaction of humans with their environment involves the harmonious coordination of the body, for which multi-modal feedback including vision, proprioception, and tactile perception is essential. Most human-machine interfaces, however, rely on the visual feedback only, and this can lead to considerable cognitive burden. Additional haptic feedback can increase the intuitiveness of the man-machine interaction.

Closed-loop control of grasping with a myoelectric hand prosthesis: which are the relevant feedback variables for force control?

In closed-loop control of grasping by hand prostheses, the feedback information sent to the user is usually the actual controlled variable, i.e., the grasp force.

The extraction of neural information from the surface EMG for the control of upper-limb prostheses: emerging avenues and challenges.

Despite not recording directly from neural cells, the surface electromyogram (EMG) signal contains information on the neural drive to muscles, i.e., the spike trains of motor neurons.