Prosthesis grasp reflex via peripheral nerve control: an in vitro study

Valderrama-Gonzalez, G. D., Gasson, M. N., Warwick, K. and Whalley, B. J. (2010) Prosthesis grasp reflex via peripheral nerve control: an in vitro study. In: IEEE 2010 9th International Conference on Cybernetic Intelligent Systems (CIS), 1-2 September 2010, University of Reading, UK, pp. 20-25. (IEEE, London)

Abstract/Summary

Here we present an economical and versatile platform for developing motor control and sensory feedback of a prosthetic hand via in vitro mammalian peripheral nerve activity. In this study, closed-loop control of the grasp function of the prosthetic hand was achieved by stimulation of a peripheral nerve preparation in response to slip sensor data from a robotic hand, forming a rudimentary reflex action. The single degree of freedom grasp was triggered by single unit activity from motor and sensory fibers as a result of stimulation. The work presented here provides a novel, reproducible, economic, and robust platform for experimenting with neural control of prosthetic devices before attempting in vivo implementation.