Providing Sensory Feedback Using Electrical Stimulation for Neural Prosthesis

Providing a neural prosthesis with sensory feedback is essential for refined manipulation. The prosthesis based on a Schunk Dexterous Hand for grasping is supplemented by electrical stimulation to generate time-variant stimulation patterns to offer sensory feedback to amputees. The contact force measured by tactile array sensors on the prosthesis is converted into corresponding patterns used for electrical stimulation of peripheral sensory nerves. The sensory feedback experiment and the stimulation pattern generation experiment were conducted individually, verifying that sensory information can be reliably measured and time-variant stimulation can be realized. Based on these preliminary experiments and simulation results from the novel prosthesis system, we will conduct integrated in vitro experiments to develop neutrally controlled intelligent prostheses.