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Neuromorphic vision and tactile fusion for upper limb prosthesis control
Mark Hays1, Luke Osborn1, Rohan Ghosh2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 720 Rutland Ave, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Summary
Integrating neuromorphic visual and tactile feedback enhances prosthetic arm control. This combined sensory feedback improves object manipulation efficiency for both able-bodied and amputee users.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Biomedical Engineering
- Robotics
Background:
- Upper limb prostheses face a sensory feedback disconnect.
- Current prosthetics underutilize visual information, a key human sense.
- Tactile feedback is available, but visual feedback integration is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of combined neuromorphic visual and tactile feedback on prosthetic arm function.
- To assess improvements in object manipulation ability and efficiency.
- To compare the efficacy of combined sensory feedback versus single-modality feedback.
Main Methods:
- Real-time closed-loop feedback strategy integrating visual and tactile sensor data.
- Neuromorphic sensors for capturing visual and tactile information.
- Testing with both able-bodied and amputee subjects performing object manipulation tasks.
Main Results:
- Combined visual and tactile feedback generally decreased task completion time.
- Improved ability and efficiency in picking up and manipulating objects observed.
- Single-modality feedback was less effective than the combined approach.
Conclusions:
- Fusion of neuromorphic visual and tactile signals offers valuable real-time feedback for prosthetic arms.
- This integrated sensory feedback enhances prosthetic function and usability.
- Further refinement of visual classification systems could unlock the full potential of combined feedback.
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