Proprioception in prosthetic hands
Dr Ed Chadwick and experts from five other UK universities were recently awarded a £1.4m EPSRC grant to develop technologies to restore sensory feedback in prosthetic hands: www.senseback.com Ed’s team aims to
develop the most sophisticated computer model of the
hand to date. It will provide an important sense that current prosthetic hands lack: proprioception.
Proprioception, or the sense of position in space, is provided in our hands by sensors in our muscles. A prosthetic hand has no muscles, but if it is coupled with a ‘virtual
hand’, then proprioception can be simulated by the ‘virtual
muscles’.
We hope that providing this feedback will enhance the
experience of using an artificial limb, by allowing more
natural use of the hand, for example by enabling a user to
reach out and pick up a glass while maintaining eye contact with a friend.
Dr Ed Chadwick (Right) & Dr Amartya Ganguly
- ISTM’s SenseBack team
World-leading upper limb modelling
I recently had the unique opportunity to spend five
weeks working at Stanford University in sunny California! I was awarded a Visiting Scholarship by the
National Center for Simulation in Rehabilitation Research, which is based at Stanford. I worked with the
OpenSim group, one of the top modelling research
groups in the world. We combined our modelling
skills to improve the mathematical description of the
stability of the shoulder joint. This will enable us to
study destabilising conditions such as rotator cuff
tears and impingement.
I really enjoyed working with the Stanford team, and
it is great to see that our expertise in upper limb modelling is being recognised internationally. This is the
start of a long-term collaboration, that will increase
the impact of our models by helping us distribute
them to researchers and clinicians worldwide.
Dr Dimitra Blana at Stanford University
REHABILITATION
6