Development of mobile controller for EMG prosthetic hand with tactile feedback

In this paper, we introduce a mobile controller for a five-fingered myoelectric prosthetic hand with tactile feedback. When constructing a system for use in daily life, the following design requirements should be satisfied: 1) limitations on the total weight of the system; 2) sufficient degrees of freedom of motion; and 3) sufficient sensory feedback information for the result of the interaction with circumstance. At first, we limited the degrees of operations for the wrist motion and switching operations, because too many degrees of freedom cause an increase in overall weight. Next, we constructed the controller, which has a suitable processing performance with mobile PC and microcomputer. Moreover, for lightweight tactile feedback system, we employed the technique of Phantom Sensation (PS) with only two electrodes. Finally, we discuss the appropriate parameter combinations for PS.