Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: Building robotic prostheses requires a sensor-based interface designed to provide the robotic hand with the control required to perform hand gestures. Traditional Electromyography (EMG) based prosthetics and emerging alternatives often face limitations such as muscle-activation limitations, high cost, and complex calibrations. In this paper, we present a low-cost robotic system composed of a smart ankleband for intuitive, calibration-free control of a robotic hand, and a robotic prosthetic hand that executes actions corresponding to leg gestures. The ankleband integrates an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensor with a lightweight neural network to infer user-intended leg gestures from motion data. Our system represents a significant step towards higher adoption rates of robotic prostheses among arm amputees, as it enables one to operate a prosthetic hand using a low-cost, low-power, and calibration-free solution. To evaluate our work, we collected data from 10 subjects and tested our prototype ankleband with a robotic hand on an individual with an upper-limb amputation. Our results demonstrate that this system empowers users to perform daily tasks more efficiently, requiring few compensatory movements.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Zadok, Dean, Salzman, Oren, Wolf, Alon, Bronstein, Alex M.
Institution: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6979296728
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