Page 223 - Handbook of Biomechatronics

220 Georgios A. Bertos and Evangelos G. Papadopoulos

Transmitter Implants
Telemetry External
controller coil

Prosthetic
Prosthetic Prosthesis Residual interface
hand controller limb
(socket)
Fig. 22 IMES use for prosthesis control. (From Weir, R.F., Troyk, P.R., DeMichele, G.A.,
Kerns, D.A., Schorsch, J.F., Maas, H., 2009. Implantable myoelectric sensors (IMESs) for
intramuscular electromyogram recording. IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 56(1), 159–171.
https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2008.2005942.)

Variants of the IMES systems for prosthetic use already exist. The Ripple
system from Salt Lake City, United States and the MyNode from the Shirley
Ryan Ability Lab (formerly known as Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago or
RIC) have been developed. The MyoNode (Bercich et al., 2016) has the
advantage that is made from off-the-self components.
Even though, these systems have been used in an EMG sensory input
paradigm for prosthesis control, there is potential of expanding the paradigm
by integrating specific sensory nerve stimulation in order to increase feed-
back and proprioception in an artificial way. With that holistic paradigm
the need for a musculoskeletal model is evident (see Section 2.7.1).

2.7 Neural Feedback Integration
Recently, peripheral nerves have been stimulated by signals connected to
touch sensors of prosthetic hands in order to give to the amputees a sense
of touch. It is of importance to note that the integration of these sensory
signals happens via the Peripheral and Central Nervous Systems, taking
advantage of the plasticity of the nervous system, that is, the ability to learn
and adapt. This could enhance or complement the widely used myoelectric
control of upper-limb prostheses since the lack of proprioceptive feedback is
one of its major disadvantages. This breakthrough though makes more
evident the need of a model which will determine how the different
sensory and motor signals have to coexist as controlling a many-DoF
prosthetic hand.