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Development of a cybernetic hand prosthesis
 

 

The CYBERHAND project, funded by the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) arm of the IST Programme, aims at exploring cutting-edge theories and solutions in the fields of neuroscience and robotics, in order to develop a cybernetic prosthetic hand.

The main result of the CYBERHAND project will be the development of a new kind of hand prosthesis (i.e., a "cybernetic prosthesis") able to re-create the natural link which exists between the hand and the Central Nervous System (CNS). This Demonstrator can be considered the first tangible result towards the implementation of a "bionic hand" completely interchangeable with the natural one.

The natural hand is controlled by using the neural commands (i.e., the efferent neural signals) going from the CNS to the peripheral nervous system (to recruit the different muscles). At the same time the information (concerning the position of the fingers, the force produced during grasp, the slippage of the objects, etc.) obtained from the natural sensors (mechanoreceptors, muscle spindles, etc.) are brought to the CNS by activation of the afferent peripheral nerves.

The CYBERHAND prosthetic hand will aim to implement the above described structure. In fact, the hand will be controlled by an amputee in a very natural way, by processing the efferent neural signals coming from the CNS. Moreover, the prosthesis will be felt by the amputee as the lost natural limb since a natural sensory feedback will be delivered to him/her by means of the stimulation of some specific afferent nerves (i.e., the nerves which bring the sensory information to the central nervous system). This will re-create the "life-like" perception of the natural hand thus increasing the acceptability of the artificial device. This result will be achieved also by developing biomimetic sensors replicating the natural sensors of the hand, and regeneration-type electrodes which will allow selective stimulation (to deliver the sensory feedback) and recording (to extract the user's intentions).

In the figure below the concept of the Final Demonstrator of the CYBERHAND project is illustrated.
 

CYBERHAND system components:

  1. Neural electrodes
  2. Implantable system for neural stimulation (to provide sensory feedback to the patient)and recording (patient's intention detection)
  3. Telemetric link (receiver and transmitter) for both efferent and afferent signals
  4. "Biologically-inspired" mechatronic hand, with embedded biomimetic sensors (in both structure and glove)
  5. External unit for decoding patient's intentions and for prosthesis control
  6. System to deliver the cognitive feedback to the patient

Subsystems 5-6 will be implemented by using a portable electronic circuitry (e.g., a DSP architecture) according to the computational costs necessary to perform the processing.

CYBERHAND is a 36 months project and it started on May 1, 2002.

The project duration has been extended to 42 months (end date November 1, 2005).

IST-FET Project #2001-35094