Myoelectric control of prostheses

The development of myoelectric control systems for powered limb prostheses has advanced rapidly in recent years. The main thrusts in this development have been in realizing self-contained prostheses and in realizing better prostheses control through improvements in the myoelectric signal processing techniques. This review considers the latter of these two areas. It first presents an historical look at myoelectric signal processing and identifies the problems. It then presents a general look at the myoelectric signal and those characteristics which give rise to these problems. A review of the literature related to various control strategies and signal processing techniques to overcome these problems is given. Finally, future trends to be expected in this area are discussed.