A virtual myoelectric prosthesis training system capable of providing instructions on hand operations

Nakamura Go

Shibanoki Taro

Kurita Yuichi

Honda Yuichiro

Masuda Akito

Mizobe Futoshi

Chin Takaaki

Tsuji Toshio

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems

This article proposes a virtual hand and a virtual training system for controlling the MyoBock—the most commonly used myoelectric prosthetic hand worldwide. As the virtual hand is controlled using the method also adopted for the MyoBock hand, the proposed system provides upper-limb amputees with operation sensibilities similar to those experienced in MyoBock control. It can also display an additional virtual hand for the provision of instructions on hand operation, such as the recommended posture for object grasping and the trajectory desirable to reach a target. In virtual hand control experiments conducted with an amputee to evaluate the proposed virtual hand’s operability, the subject successfully performed stable opening and closing with high discrimination rates (89.3±6.65%), thanks to the virtual hand’s incorporation of the MyoBock’s operational characteristics. A training experiment using the proposed system was also conducted with eight healthy participants over a period of 5 days. The participants were asked to perform the box and block test using the MyoBock hand in a real environment on the first and final days. The results showed that the number of blocks transported in 1 min significantly increased and that the participants using the instruction virtual hand changed the orientation of the hand approaching blocks from vertical to lateral. The outcomes of the experiment indicate that the proposed system can be used to improve MyoBock hand control operation both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Prosthetic hand

virtual training

electromyogram

MyoBock hand

box and block test

eng

SAGE Publications

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/ open-access-at-sage).

[ISSN] 1729-8806

[ISSN] 1729-8814

[DOI] 10.1177/1729881417728452

[DOI] https://doi.org/10.1177/1729881417728452