Project objectives
The HandBot Project pursues two fundamental objectives:
- understand the detailed role of human mechanoreceptors in the sensorimotor control of grasping and manipulating tasks
- create a robotic hand prosthesis integrating biomimetic artificial sensors and a bioinspired tactile perception system capable of allowing gripping and manipulation operations not possible with currently available commercial or research systems.
The HandBot system makes use of bidirectional neural interfaces towards the latest generation Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) in order to allow direct and natural control of the prosthesis by the user. This approach leads to a significant increase in the performance of the prosthesis in terms of variety and quality of the gripping and manipulation tasks, and therefore to a better acceptability by the patient.
The specific objectives of the project are:
- Carrying out neurophysiological studies on the role of tactile perception in sensorimotor control during reach tasksing and taken on man. It is expected that these studies can provide important inputs on the understanding of afferent and efferent control mechanisms and on the development of new technologies for prosthetic systems
- Develop a new generation of biomechatronic prosthetic hands equipped with neuromorphic tactile sensors, through:
- Experimental validation of the neurophysiological models developed in O.1 on a robotic arm-hand system and the extraction of design inputs for the biomechatronic hand
- Development of bio-inspired prosthetic fingers and integration with the actuation system, replicating the human hand as much as possible
- Design and development of a tactile perception system that meets the specifications deriving from O.1
- To develop a human-machine interaction module capable of connecting the PNS with the artificial hand and re-establishing two-way communication with the brain by means of:
- Implantable neural electrodes for stimulation and recording
- Development of a Neural Stimulation/Recording Unit with: (i) an integrated system on a chip for the management of implantable electrodes; (ii) a control board for bidirectional communication between the neural interface and the prosthesis with the control system
- Development of a sw/hw module for real-time neural signal decoding: (i) on-line decoding algorithms and protocols to train them to recognize the patient's motor intentions; (ii) embedded hw platform to perform the required tasks in real time
- Development of a control based on sensory information for the prosthetic system with the following salient features: (i) distributed control between high and low level, thus allowing to make decisions on the level of hand autonomy and on the level of control shared with the user based on the inputs received and the expected task; (ii) close the user in the control loop through the relevant channel
- Evaluate user performance through:
- Definition of the clinical protocol for surgery
- Definition and execution of experimental tests on the end user
- End User Functional Evaluation: Conducting an integrated ultrasound and MRI study to evaluate brain perfusion remodeling, brain structural connectivity, and systemic vascular endothelium in the amputee's hand, before and after prosthesis implantation .
|
