PPR AS 1/3

Project objectives

The loss of a hand following a traumatic event can result in devastating damage, which changes a person's lifestyle forever. This drastic change has an impact not only on the workplace but also on the personal sphere, severely limiting the ability to carry out activities of daily life and to interact with people.

The incidence of upper limb amputations in the world, equal to about 4.000 new cases a year in Italy and about 340.000 new cases in the United States, has led to a flourishing scientific and technological development in the international panorama of neuroprosthetics, with particular attention to the theme of the recovery of sensory capacities and the closed-loop control of prostheses, thanks to the use of invasive neural interfaces.

The ultimate goal of the project is to optimize a prosthetic system developed in PPR2 project with the introduction of highly miniaturized, stable and biocompatible components, for a long-lasting system that therefore allows the use of these technologies extensively in contexts of daily life.

The project aims to develop a stand-alone neural interfacing prosthetic system composed of: (i) a completely implantable neural interfacing system equipped with wireless technology and (ii) a bidirectional embedded control of the prostheses that allows actively modulate the grip strength, starting from the tactile information elicited in the subject through neural stimulation.

The intent is that the project, benefiting from the experiences, results and technologies developed by UCBM and INAIL in the PPR2 project, moving towards stable and long-lasting systems, can produce results that can be concretely translated in the medium-long term in terms of devices and technologies available to patients.

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