Towards prosthetic systems providing comprehensive tactile feedback for utility and embodiment

The present research moves in the direction of enabling a bidirectional communication between the subject brain and the prosthetic limb, by providing the prosthesis with an artificial cutaneous sensing through an electronic skin. In this preliminary study, the skin response to the applied mechanical stimuli is conveyed to the human subject using electrotactile stimulation. Experimental tests on two healthy subjects show that a short training through reinforced learning increased considerably the success rate in the identification of the impact location. This preliminary study demonstrates the feasibility of communicating the tactile information from the electronic skin to the human subject using multichannel electrocutaneous stimulation. The result is promising since it implies that it might be possible to achieve the embodiment of the artificial skin into the body scheme of the human subject, relying on the brain ability to successfully process the artificial tactile information.