DocumentCode :
3661822
Title :
Electromyographic mapping of finger stiffness in tripod grasp: a proof of concept
Author :
Matteo Rossi;Alessandro Altobelli;Sasha B Godfrey;Arash Ajoudani;Antonio Bicchi
Author_Institution :
Department of Advanced Robotics (ADVR), Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy
fYear :
2015
Firstpage :
181
Lastpage :
186
Abstract :
Effective execution of a manipulation task using prosthetic or robotic hands requires that the motion and the impedance profiles of the fingers be appropriately commanded. This, however, brings some design and control challenges regarding the individual planning and realization of the finger motion and stiffness trajectories. It appears that the central nervous system solves for this complexity in an effective and coordinated manner which has been well-recognized under the concept of hand synergies. While the exploitation of this concept in kinematic coordinates has lead to the development of several successful robotic designs and control strategies, its extension to dynamic coordinates, such as coordinated stiffening of the fingers, remains to be investigated. Indeed, in this study we provide preliminary evidence on the existence of such coordinated stiffening patterns in human fingers and establish initial steps towards a real-time and effective modelling of the finger stiffness in a tripod grasp. To achieve this goal, the endpoint stiffness of the thumb, index and middle fingers of five healthy subjects are experimentally identified and correlated with the electromyography (EMG) signals recorded from a dominant antagonistic pair of the forearm muscles. Our findings suggest that: i) the magnitude of the stiffness ellipses at the fingertips grows in a coordinated way, subsequent to the co-contraction of the forearm muscles; ii) the length of the ellipses´ axes appears to have a nearly linear relationship with the co-contraction level of the antagonistic muscle pair.
Keywords :
"Electromyography","Robot kinematics","Force","Robot sensing systems","Thumb","Indexes"
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), 2015 IEEE International Conference on
ISSN :
1945-7898
Electronic_ISBN :
1945-7901
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/ICORR.2015.7281196
Filename :
7281196
Link To Document :
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