Flexible Electronics: An Epidermal Stimulation and Sensing Platform for Sensorimotor Prosthetic Control, Management of Lower Back Exertion, and Electrical Muscle Activation (Adv. Mater. 22/2016).

The design of an ultrathin, conformal electronic device that integrates electrotactile stimulation with electromyography, temperature, and strain sensing in a single, simple platform is reported by J. A. Rogers and co-workers on page 4462. Demonstrated application possibilities include prosthetic control with sensory feedback, monitors, and stimulation signals related to lower back exertion, and electrical muscle stimulation with feedback control.

An Epidermal Stimulation and Sensing Platform for Sensorimotor Prosthetic Control, Management of Lower Back Exertion, and Electrical Muscle Activation.

The design of an ultrathin, conformal electronic device that integrates electrotactile stimulation with electromyography, temperature, and strain sensing in a single, simple platform is reported. Experiments demonstrate simultaneous use of multiple modes of operation of this type of device in the sensorimotor control of robotic systems, in the monitoring of lower back exertion and in muscle stimulation.

Prediction of distal arm joint angles from EMG and shoulder orientation for prosthesis control.

Current state-of-the-art upper limb myoelectric prostheses are limited by only being able to control a single degree of freedom at a time. However, recent studies have separately shown that the joint angles corresponding to shoulder orientation and upper arm EMG can predict the joint angles corresponding to elbow flexion/extension and forearm pronation/ supination, which would allow for simultaneous control over both degrees of freedom. In this preliminary study, we show that the combination of both upper arm EMG and shoulder joint angles may predict the distal arm joint angles better than each set of inputs alone. Also, with the advent of surgical techniques like targeted muscle reinnervation, which allows a person with an amputation intuitive muscular control over his or her prosthetic, our results suggest that including a set of EMG electrodes around the forearm increases performance when compared to upper arm EMG and shoulder orientation. We used a Time-Delayed Adaptive Neural Network to predict distal arm joint angles. Our results show that our network's root mean square error (RMSE) decreases and coefficient of determination (R(2)) increases when combining both shoulder orientation and EMG as inputs.