Hand Prosthetics

We have been working with Prof. Antonio Bicchi and his team at Centro E. Piaggio, University of Pisa, and the Italian Institute of Technology, and the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN (Drs. Kristin Zhao and Karen Andrews) on testing a soft-synergy prosthetic hand, the Soft Hand Pro (SHP). Our laboratory has worked on several projects aiming at identifying strengths and weaknesses of the SHP in able-bodied individuals, including quantifying force modulation during grasping and manipulation,¹ comparing myoelectric controllers⁴ (Fig. 7), and improving force control by introducing a hybrid gain control algorithm⁵ (Fig. 8). Part of this work has been reviewed in Santello et al.^2,3

Figure 7. Testing reproducibility of SHP opening-closing. Movement cycles are driven by a computer. From: Fani et al. (2016). — **Figure 7.** Testing reproducibility of SHP opening-closing. Movement cycles are driven by a computer. From: Fani et al. (2016).

Figure 8. “Standard” single-gain controller (top) and hybrid gain controller (bottom) of the SHP. The hybrid gain controller uses two gains: a high gain is used during SHP free-motion and release, whereas the low gain is used following contact with … — **Figure 8.** “Standard” single-gain controller (top) and hybrid gain controller (bottom) of the SHP. The hybrid gain controller uses two gains: a high gain is used during SHP free-motion and release, whereas the low gain is used following contact with the object. From: Fu and Santello (2018).

For more information on these projects contact: Marco Santello

References

Gailey AS., Godfrey SB, Breighner R, Andrews K, Zhao K, Bicchi A, and Santello M. (2017). Grasp performance of a soft synergy-based prosthetic hand: a pilot study. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.
Santello M, Bianchi M, Gabiccini M, Ricciardi E, Salvietti G, Prattichizzo D, Ernst M, Moscatelli A, Jorntell H, Kappers A, Kyriakopoulos K, Albu Schaeffer A, Castellini C, Bicchi A (2016a). Hand synergies: Integration of robotics and neuroscience for understanding the control of biological and artificial hands. Physics of Life Reviews.
Santello M, Bianchi M, Gabiccini M, Ricciardi E, Salvietti G, Prattichizzo D, Ernst M, Moscatelli A, Jorntell H, Kappers A, Kyriakopoulos K, Albu Schaeffer A, Castellini C, Bicchi A (2016b). Towards a synergy framework across neuroscience and robotics: Lessons learned and open questions. Physics of Life Reviews.
Fani S, Bianchi M, Jain S, Pimenta Neto SJ, Boege S, Bicchi A, Santello M (2016). Assessment of myoelectric controller performance and kinematic behavior of a novel soft synergy-inspired assistive device. Frontiers in Neurorobotics..
Fu Q, Santello M (2018). Improving fine control of grasping force during hand-object interactions for a soft synergy-inspired myoelectric prosthetic hand. Topic: Mapping human sensory-motor skills for manipulation onto the design and control of robots. Frontiers in Neurorobotics.