Prosthetic hands that incorporate robotics can perform dexterous self-care tasks, but they require a user’s constant attention with a limited number of hand functions. With a five-year, $4 million US National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) researchers aim to make robotic protheses more useful.
The interdisciplinary team, led by Xiaogang Hu, PhD, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Neurorehabilitation and associate professor of mechanical engineering, will work on making powered prosthetic hands more intuitive for the user by improving the neural and cognitive processes behind human-robot interactions.
“Our research seeks to reduce the barrier for assistive technology adoption and improve the quality of life for individuals with physical disabilities by improving the technology behind prosthetic robots,” Hu said. “The resulting advances in assistive robotics will allow users to engage with their prostheses as if they are their own biological limbs, allowing them to play the piano, type, or handle delicate objects.”
In the project’s first phase, led by Nanyin Zhang, PhD, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Brain Imaging and professor of biomedical engineering and of electrical engineering, researchers will investigate how neural and cognitive processes behind daily tasks are represented in the brain. To do this, they will develop an electrode platform to measure sensory information in a rodent model.
“We will seek to understand how sensory information, like reaching or grasping, are represented in the brain, and use it to help us reengineer it in robotic parts to deliver artificial sensations back to the brain,” Zhang said.
Using the information gained through the electrode implants, researchers plan to develop a device that sits at the skin’s surface and stimulates the nerves so that a user can “feel” their missing hand, in the form of the neuroprostheses. Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, PhD, the James L. Henderson, Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, will lead the device’s development.
The researchers will test the robustness and adaptability of this prosthetic device by training a sensory feedback system, a process that will be led by Robert Sainburg, PhD, the Dorothy F. and J. Lloyd Huck Distinguished Chair in Kinesiology and Neurology in the College of Health and Human Development. Sainburg’s team will evaluate how the smart prosthetic will help patients perform tasks in daily life.
“We believe that our plan for mapping both motor output and sensory feedback will make control intuitive for people with amputated hands and should make their motor output robust and adaptive to unexpected changes in the environment,” Sainburg said.
Katie Fitzsimons, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Michele Diaz, PhD, professor of psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience; and John M. Roberts, MD, a surgeon at Penn State Health, will also collaborate on the grant.
Editor’s note: This story was adapted from materials provided by Penn State.
