Design and Assessment of Biocybernetic Power Assisted Bionic Prostheses

Traditional prosthesis ( above-knee, below knee and hand) provide amputee with artificial ( mechanical ) body part that do not have any biomimic functions. Recently, the new electronic controlled prosthesis use electromyograph ( EMG ) signals recorded at the residual body part becomes a new direction in the prosthesis design. Therefore, the main goal for this integrated research project is to integrate the intelligent control, biocybernetic, bionics and medical mechatronics technologies to develop a new EMG controlled modular biocybernetic power assisted prosthesis system that can be easily adopted for clinical assessment for amputee. The new system will include high fidelity and sensitivity EMG detection sensors with an intelligent physiological signal recording and analysis system. In addition, the system will control the gait pattern with multi-features that extracted from the EMG motor patterns. Furthermore, it will incorporate a multi-dimensional biofeedback closed loop control scheme to adaptively improve the amputee’s gait performance. This three-years integrated research project has 4 subprojects. SubprojectⅠfocus on the design and assessment of a bionic EMG controlled electronic hand prosthesis. The subproject II is to develop a new biocybernetic power assisted above-knee prosthesis for clinical assessment. Subproject III concentrates on development of a novel biocybernetic power assisted below-knee prosthesis. Lastly, subproject IV focus on the design of an intelligent EMG detection and feature extraction platform for different prosthesis applications. This integrated research project will be the first time to successfully integrate the bionics, biocybernetic and EMG biofeedback control strategies for prosthesis design. Both the concept and its application for control technology are revolutionary. In addition, such innovation will make a significant contribution to promoting biomedical industry, and widespread application on clinical treatment, enhancing the amputee’s functional capabilities.

Project ID:PC9808-0597
External Project ID:NSC98-2221-E182-047