PRE2018 1 Group4

Project group 4- Robotic Limbs

• Dirk Buijvoets 0902149
• Kevin Pits 0896637 (the e-mail send to dr.ir. Molegraft is all recieved communication)
• C.P. Visser X (no contact)

Objective

Find out what the possibilities are to control non-biological parts, connected or not to the human body with signals from the nerves. Give feedback on feelings like touch where possible.

Use Aspects

Users: These could range from amputees to people that work in hazardous areas (remote controlled) or people that just need an extra hand. Society: - Enterprise: -

State of the Art

In prosthethics the state of the art is currently as follows.

• From the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Labratory where an prostetic can be attached to an implant. Is given input with sensory data comming from the nerves in the upper arm.
• The i-Limb, which can be controlled by bluetooth from a smartphone-app. This app chooses a path in which the user can go from a fist to a hand gesture. making it possible among other things to grip objects, beckon people and point at things.
• Kyoto's Advanced Telecomunications Research Institute is momentaraly experimenting with a Brain Machine Interface (a hat with electromagnetic sensors) on healty persons to perform simple tasks with a 3rd hand while multitaksing.
• Lausanne Polytechnic University has experimented with 'tickeling' nerve endings corresponding with specific extremities (in this case the middle finger) of amputees while simultaniously showing the corresponding action happening with their prostetic hand in VR. With the goal of reducing phantom pains.

For the neural-machine interface I would have liked to read multiple articles, but I could not acces these.