Evaluation of EMG, Force and Joystick as Control Interfaces for Active Upper-Extremity Movement-Assistive Devices
Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Currently, many different control interfaces for the operation of active movement-assistive device exist but their respective performance capabilities and limitations remain unclear. The goal of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the performance and learning characteristics of EMG-, force- and hand joystick-based interfaces. The human operator abilities were assessed in 8 healthy subjects using a screen-based one-dimensional position-tracking task, where the interface signal was mapped to the velocity of the cursor and the target was moving according to a multi-sine signal with a flat velocity spectrum. The performance of the control interfaces was evaluated in terms of tracking error, human-operator bandwidth, information transmission rate and effort. Results showed significant differences between the control interfaces in all the performance descriptors: the joystick-based interface presented significantly higher tracking error compared to EMG- (p<0.001) and force-based (p<0.005) interfaces; the EMG-based control interface showed a significantly higher bandwidth (p<0.001) than the force- and the joystick-based interfaces; the force- and joystick-based interfaces provided significantly higher information transmission rates (p<0.001) than the EMG-based interface; the force-based interface presented significantly lower effort than EMG- (p<0.001) and joystick-based (p<0.005) interfaces. None of the evaluated interfaces was superior in all four performance descriptors, but the force-based interface presented more positive results than the EMG- and joystick-based interfaces. However, in practice, the performance descriptors should be weighted according to the requirements of the specific application to determine which interface is the most suitable for the control of a particular active upper-extremity movement-assistive device.
Author: Joan Lobo-Prat
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W88452527