Tag Archives: robotic prostheses

Mind-reading prosthetic limbs

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In a December 21, 2022 Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU press release (also on EurekAlert) problems with current neuroprostheses are described in the context of a new research project intended to solve them,

Lifting a glass, making a fist, entering a phone number using the index finger: it is amazing the things cutting-edge robotic hands can already do thanks to biomedical technology. However, things that work in the laboratory often encounter stumbling blocks when put to practice in daily life. The problem is the vast diversity of the intentions of each individual person, their surroundings and the things that can be found there, making a one size fits all solution all but impossible. A team at FAU is investigating how intelligent prostheses can be improved and made more reliable. The idea is that interactive artificial intelligence will help the prostheses to recognize human intent better, to register their surroundings and to continue to develop and improve over time. The project is to receive 4.5 million euros in funding from the EU, with FAU receiving 467,000 euros.

“We are literally working at the interface between humans and machines,” explains Prof. Dr. Claudio Castellini, professor of medical robotics at FAU. “The technology behind prosthetics for upper limbs has come on in leaps and bounds over the past decades.” Using surface electromyography, for example, skin electrodes at the remaining stump of the arm can detect the slightest muscle movements. These biosignals can be converted and transferred to the prosthetic limb as electrical impulses. “The wearer controls their artificial hand themselves using the stump. Methods taken from pattern recognition and interactive machine learning also allow people to teach their prosthetic their own individual needs when making a gesture or a movement.”

The advantages of AI over purely cosmetic prosthetics

At present, advanced robotic prosthetics have not yet reached optimal standards in terms of comfort, function and control, which is why many people with missing limbs still often prefer purely cosmetic prosthetics with no additional functions. The new EU Horizon project “AI-Powered Manipulation System for Advanced Robotic Service, Manufacturing and Prosthetics (IntelliMan)” therefore focuses on how these can interact with their environment even more effectively and for a specific purpose.

Researchers at FAU concentrate in particular on how to improve control of both real and virtual prosthetic upper limbs. The focus is on what is known as intent detection. Prof. Castellini and his team are continuing work on recording and analyzing human biosignals, and are designing innovative algorithms for machine learning aimed at detecting the individual movement patterns of individuals. User studies conducted on test persons both with and without physical disabilities are used to validate their results. Furthermore, FAU is also leading the area “Shared autonomy between humans and robots” in the EU project, aimed at checking the safety of the results.

At the interface between humans and machines

Prof. Castellini heads the “Assistive Intelligent Robotics” lab (AIROB) at FAU that focuses on controlling assistive robotics for the upper and lower limbs as well as functional electrostimulation. “We are exploiting the potential offered by intent detection to control assistive and rehabilitative robotics,” explains the researcher. “This covers wearable robots worn on the body such as prosthetics and exoskeletons, but also robot arms and simulations using virtual reality.” The professorship focuses particularly on biosignal processing of various sensor modalities and methods of machine learning for intent detection, in other words research directly at the interface between humans and machines.

In his previous research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where he was based until 2021, Castellini investigated the question of how virtual hand prosthetics could help amputees cope with phantom pain. Alongside Castellini, doctoral candidate Fabio Egle, a research associate at the professorship, is also actively involved in the IntelliMan project. The FAU share of the EU project will receive funding of 467,000 euros over a period of three and a half years, while the overall budget amounts to 6 million euros. The IntelliMan project is coordinated by the University of Bologna and the DLR, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the University of Genoa, Luigi Vanvitelli University in Campania and the Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR) are also involved.

Good luck to the team!

Man with world’s first implanted bionic arm participates in first Cybathlon (olympics for cyborgs)

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The world’s first Cybathlon is being held on Oct. 8, 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland. One of the participants is an individual who took part in some groundbreaking research into implants which was featured in my Oct. 10, 2014 posting. There’s more about the Cybathlon and the participant in an Oct. 4, 2016 news item on phys.org,

A few years ago, a patient was implanted with a bionic arm for the first time in the world using control technology developed at Chalmers University of Technology. He is now taking part in Cybathlon, a new international competition in which 74 participants with physical disabilities will compete against each other, using the latest robotic prostheses and other assistive technologies – a sort of ‘Cyborg Olympics’.

The Paralympics will now be followed by the Cybathlon, which takes place in Zürich on October 8th [2016]. This is the first major competition to show that the boundaries between human and machine are becoming more and more blurred. The participants will compete in six different disciplines using the machines they are connected to as well as possible.

Cybathlon is intended to drive forward the development of prostheses and other types of assistive aids. Today, such technologies are often highly advanced technically, but provide limited value in everyday life.

An Oct. 4, 2016 Chalmers University of Technology press release by Johanna Wilde, which originated the news item, provides details about the competitor, his prosthetic device, and more,

Magnus, one of the participants, has now had his biomechatronically integrated arm prosthesis for almost four years. He says that his life has totally changed since the implantation, which was performed by Dr Rickard Brånemark, associate professor at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.

“I don’t feel handicapped since I got this arm”, says Magnus. “I can now work full time and can perform all the tasks in both my job and my family life. The prosthesis doesn’t feel like a machine, but more like my own arm.”

Magnus lives in northern Sweden and works as a lorry driver. He regularly visits Gothenburg in southern Sweden and carries out tests with researcher Max Ortiz Catalan, assistant professor at Chalmers University of Technology, who has been in charge of developing the technology and leads the team competing in the Cybathlon.

“This is a completely new research field in which we have managed to directly connect the artificial limb to the skeleton, nerves and muscles,” says Dr Max Ortiz Catalan. “In addition, we are including direct neural sensory feedback in the prosthetic arm so the patient can intuitively feel with it.”

Today Magnus can feel varying levels of pressure in his artificial hand, something which is necessary to instinctively grip an object firmly enough. He is unique in the world in having a permanent sensory connection between the prosthesis and his nervous system, working outside laboratory conditions. Work is now under way to add more types of sensations.

At the Cybathlon he will be competing for the Swedish team, which is formed by Chalmers University of Technology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital and the company Integrum AB.

The competition has a separate discipline for arm prostheses. In this discipline Magnus has to complete a course made up of six different stations at which the prosthesis will be put to the test. For example, he has to open a can with a can opener, load a tray with crockery and open a door with the tray in his hand. The events at the Cybathlon are designed to be spectator-friendly while being based on various operations that the participants have to cope with in their daily lives.

“However, the competition will not really show the unique advantages of our technology, such as the sense of touch and the bone-anchored attachment which makes the prosthesis comfortable enough to wear all day,” says Max Ortiz Catalan.

Magnus is the only participant with an amputation above the elbow. This naturally makes the competition more difficult for him than for the others, who have a natural elbow joint.

“From a competitive perspective Cybathlon is far from ideal to demonstrate clinically viable technology,” says Max Ortiz Catalan. “But it is a major and important event in the human-machine interface field in which we would like to showcase our technology. Unlike several of the other participants, Magnus will compete in the event using the same technology he uses in his everyday life.”

Facts about Cybathlon
•    The very first Cybathlon is being organised by the Swiss university ETH Zürich.
•    The €5 million event will take place in Zürich´s 7600 spectator ice hockey stadium, Swiss Arena.
•    74 participants are competing for 59 different teams from 25 countries around the world. In total, the teams consist of about 300 scientists, engineers, support staff and competitors.
•    The teams range from small ad hoc teams to the world’s largest manufacturers of advanced prostheses.
•    The majority of the teams are groups from research labs and many of the prostheses have come straight out of the lab.
•    Unlike the Olympics and Paralympics, the Cybathlon participants are not athletes but ordinary people with various disabilities. The aims of the competition are to establish a dialogue between academia and industry, to facilitate discussion between technology developers and people with disabilities and to promote the use of robotic assistive aids to the general public.
•    Cybathlon will return in 2020, as a seven-day event in Tokyo, to coincide with the Olympics.

Facts about the Swedish team
The Opra Osseointegration team is a multidisciplinary team comprising technical and medical partners. The team is led by Dr Max Ortiz Catalan, assistant professor at Chalmers University of Technology, who has been in charge of developing the technology in close collaboration with Dr Rickard Brånemark, who is a surgeon at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and an associate professor at Gothenburg University. Dr Brånemark led the team performing the implantation of the device. Integrum AB, a Swedish company, complements the team as the pioneering provider of bone-anchored limb prostheses.

This video gives you an idea of what it’s in store on Oct. 8, 2016,