Objective
OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of the CYBERHAND Project are to increase the basic knowledge of neural regeneration, and sensory-motor control of the hand in humans and to exploit this knowledge to develop a new kind of hand prosthesis which will overcome some of the drawbacks of current systems. This new prosthesis will:
1) be felt by an amputee as the lost natural limb delivering her/him a natural sensory feedback by means of the stimulation of some specific afferent nerves;
2) be controlled in a very natural wa by processing the efferent neural signals coming from the central nervous system (reducing the discomfort of the current EMG-based control prosthesis).
DESCRIPTION OF WORK
The first part of the project will be directed to achieve several technical goals:
1) the development of an implantable unit (with a telemetry connection with the external devices) for the stimulation and recording of the peripheral nervous system by using regeneration-type electrodes. Prior to final experiments in humans this device will be extensively tested in animal models to verify their biocompatibility. These trials will be very useful in order to increase our basic knowledge of neural regeneration processes in different animal models;
2) the re-engineering of a "biologically-inspired" mechatronic prosthesis embedding also several bio mimetic tactile and position micro sensors specifically designed for the CYBERHAND prosthesis;
3) the development of algorithms for the processing of the efferent neural signal in order to extract the information on the intentions of the user (e.g. what task she/he would like to perform with the prosthesis);
4) the development of the algorithms for the implementation of the closed-loop control of the prosthetic hand during the different tasks;
5) the definition of the algorithms to code the sensory information in order to stimulate in the appropriate way the afferent nerves. During the final phase of the project, the different subsystems will be integrated and implanted in human volunteers.
During the validation of this demonstrator fundamental information will be achieved on neural regeneration and on the sensory-motor control in humans. Particular attention will be reserved to the validation of final demonstrator with patients and the exploitation of the results of the project in order to obtain a clinically usable device. Finally, the results will be disseminated in scientific papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and presented at specialised workshops.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
56127 PISA
Italy