Electromyography sensor based control for a hand exoskeleton

This paper presents a electromyography (EMG) control for a hand exoskeleton. The device was developed with focus on support of the rehabilitation process after hand injuries or strokes. As the device is designed for the later use on patients, which have limited hand mobility, fast undesired movements have to be averted. Safety precautions in the hardware and software design of the system must be taken to ensure this. The construction allows controlling the motion of finger joints. However, due to friction in gears and mechanical construction it is not possible to move finger joints within the construction without help of actuators. Therefore force sensors are integrated into the construction to measure force exchanged between human and exoskeleton. These allow the human to control the movements of the hand exoskeleton which is useful to teach new trajectories, for muscle training, or for diagnostic purposes. The control method using electromyography (EMG) sensor presented in this paper uses the EMG sensor values to generate a trajectory, which is executed by a position control loop based on sliding mode control.

[1]  José Luis Pons Rovira,et al.  Rehabilitation Robotics: a Wearable Exo-Skeleton for Tremor Assessment and Suppression , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[2]  P. Dario,et al.  Control of multifunctional prosthetic hands by processing the electromyographic signal. , 2002, Critical reviews in biomedical engineering.

[3]  Takashi Maeno,et al.  Development of an ultrasonic clutch , 2003, IEEE Symposium on Ultrasonics, 2003.

[4]  Ian D. Walker,et al.  Myoelectric teleoperation of a complex robotic hand , 1996, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[5]  Andreas Wege,et al.  Embedded System Design for a Hand Exoskeleton , 2006 .

[6]  Wenwei Yu,et al.  EMG prosthetic hand controller discriminating ten motions using real-time learning method , 1999, Proceedings 1999 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human and Environment Friendly Robots with High Intelligence and Emotional Quotients (Cat. No.99CH36289).

[7]  Nikolaos G. Tsagarakis,et al.  Occupational and physical therapy using a hand exoskeleton based exerciser , 2004, 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37566).

[8]  Naoki Kawakami,et al.  An Encounter-Type Multi-Fingered Master Hand Using Circuitous Joints , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[9]  G. Gini,et al.  An EMG-controlled exoskeleton for hand rehabilitation , 2005, 9th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2005. ICORR 2005..

[10]  Andreas Wege,et al.  Application of EMG signals for controlling exoskeleton robots , 2006, Biomedizinische Technik. Biomedical engineering.

[11]  Yoky Matsuoka,et al.  Comparison of control strategies for an EMG controlled orthotic exoskeleton for the hand , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[12]  Christian Jutten,et al.  Blind separation of sources, part I: An adaptive algorithm based on neuromimetic architecture , 1991, Signal Process..

[13]  Konstantin Kondak,et al.  Force Control Strategy for a Hand Exoskeleton Based on Sliding Mode Position Control , 2006, 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[14]  Ralf Mikut,et al.  Steuerungs- und Signalverarbeitungskonzepte für eine multifunktionale Handprothese (Control and Signal Processing Concepts for a Multifunctional Hand Prosthesis) , 2002 .

[15]  G.C. Burdea,et al.  Virtual reality-enhanced stroke rehabilitation , 2001, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.

[16]  K. Kondak,et al.  Mechanical design and motion control of a hand exoskeleton for rehabilitation , 2005, IEEE International Conference Mechatronics and Automation, 2005.

[17]  Andreas Wege,et al.  Development and control of a hand exoskeleton for rehabilitation of hand injuries , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[18]  M. Bergamasco,et al.  A multi-finger haptic interface for visually impaired people , 2003, The 12th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2003. Proceedings. ROMAN 2003..