Neuromorphic compliant control facilitates human-prosthetic performance for hand grasp functions

Current bionic hands lack the ability of fine force manipulation for grasping fragile objects due to missing human neuromuscular compliance in control. This incompatibility between prosthetic devices and the sensorimotor system has resulted in a high abandonment rate of hand prostheses. To tackle th...

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Main Authors: Anran Xie, Zhuozhi Zhang, Jie Zhang, Weidong Chen, James Patton, Ning Lan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4386/ada9a7
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author Anran Xie
Zhuozhi Zhang
Jie Zhang
Weidong Chen
James Patton
Ning Lan
author_facet Anran Xie
Zhuozhi Zhang
Jie Zhang
Weidong Chen
James Patton
Ning Lan
author_sort Anran Xie
collection DOAJ
description Current bionic hands lack the ability of fine force manipulation for grasping fragile objects due to missing human neuromuscular compliance in control. This incompatibility between prosthetic devices and the sensorimotor system has resulted in a high abandonment rate of hand prostheses. To tackle this challenge, we employed a neuromorphic modeling approach, biorealistic control, to regain human-like grasping ability. The biorealistic control restored muscle force regulation and stiffness adaptation using neuromorphic modeling of the neuromuscular reflex units, which was capable of real-time computing of model outputs. We evaluated the dexterity of the biorealistic control with a set of delicate grasp tasks that simulated varying challenging scenarios of grasping fragile objects in daily activities of life, including the box and block task, the glass box task, and the potato chip task. The performance of the biorealistic control was compared with that of proportional control. Results indicated that the biorealistic control with the compliance of the neuromuscular reflex units significantly outperformed the proportional control with more efficient grip forces, higher success rates, fewer break and drop rates. Post-task survey questionnaires revealed that the biorealistic control reduced subjective burdens of task difficulty and improved subjective confidence in control performance significantly. The outcome of the evaluation confirmed that the biorealistic control could achieve superior abilities in fine, accurate, and efficient grasp control for prosthetic users.
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series Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering
spelling doaj-art-b37ce9104bf84040bd6f619207a1c15d2025-02-06T15:40:28ZengIOP PublishingNeuromorphic Computing and Engineering2634-43862025-01-015101400610.1088/2634-4386/ada9a7Neuromorphic compliant control facilitates human-prosthetic performance for hand grasp functionsAnran Xie0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5097-467XZhuozhi Zhang1Jie Zhang2Weidong Chen3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8757-0679James Patton4Ning Lan5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6061-5419School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Automation, Institute of Medical Robotics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaRichard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago , Chicago, IL, United States of AmericaSchool of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; Department of Automation, Institute of Medical Robotics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Illinois Chicago , Chicago, IL, United States of AmericaCurrent bionic hands lack the ability of fine force manipulation for grasping fragile objects due to missing human neuromuscular compliance in control. This incompatibility between prosthetic devices and the sensorimotor system has resulted in a high abandonment rate of hand prostheses. To tackle this challenge, we employed a neuromorphic modeling approach, biorealistic control, to regain human-like grasping ability. The biorealistic control restored muscle force regulation and stiffness adaptation using neuromorphic modeling of the neuromuscular reflex units, which was capable of real-time computing of model outputs. We evaluated the dexterity of the biorealistic control with a set of delicate grasp tasks that simulated varying challenging scenarios of grasping fragile objects in daily activities of life, including the box and block task, the glass box task, and the potato chip task. The performance of the biorealistic control was compared with that of proportional control. Results indicated that the biorealistic control with the compliance of the neuromuscular reflex units significantly outperformed the proportional control with more efficient grip forces, higher success rates, fewer break and drop rates. Post-task survey questionnaires revealed that the biorealistic control reduced subjective burdens of task difficulty and improved subjective confidence in control performance significantly. The outcome of the evaluation confirmed that the biorealistic control could achieve superior abilities in fine, accurate, and efficient grasp control for prosthetic users.https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4386/ada9a7neuromorphic modelingmusclespindlebiorealistic controlcompliant graspsprosthetic hand
spellingShingle Anran Xie
Zhuozhi Zhang
Jie Zhang
Weidong Chen
James Patton
Ning Lan
Neuromorphic compliant control facilitates human-prosthetic performance for hand grasp functions
Neuromorphic Computing and Engineering
neuromorphic modeling
muscle
spindle
biorealistic control
compliant grasps
prosthetic hand
title Neuromorphic compliant control facilitates human-prosthetic performance for hand grasp functions
title_full Neuromorphic compliant control facilitates human-prosthetic performance for hand grasp functions
title_fullStr Neuromorphic compliant control facilitates human-prosthetic performance for hand grasp functions
title_full_unstemmed Neuromorphic compliant control facilitates human-prosthetic performance for hand grasp functions
title_short Neuromorphic compliant control facilitates human-prosthetic performance for hand grasp functions
title_sort neuromorphic compliant control facilitates human prosthetic performance for hand grasp functions
topic neuromorphic modeling
muscle
spindle
biorealistic control
compliant grasps
prosthetic hand
url https://doi.org/10.1088/2634-4386/ada9a7
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