{"title":"On Optimal Tendon Routing-Based Design of Biologically Inspired Underactuated Hand Exoskeleton for Gross Grasping","authors":"Vitthal Khatik;Anupam Saxena","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3387334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3387334","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a compact, portable fingertip-to-elbow hand exoskeleton (F-EL-EX) designed to assist in gross grasping activities involving hand opening and closing movements. The design mimics a biological tendon pulley system (TPS) for finger flexion, optimized for the maximum range of flexion while keeping bowstringing and maximum pulley stress under check. The exoskeleton finger integrates a jointless system of phalanges, designed with care to house the TPS while allowing unrestricted motion of the respective finger joints, each with variable centers of rotation. The exoskeleton is hybrid – fabricated with plastic, natural rubber, and metal, with individual or combination of materials used for different palm and forearm regions. Rigid components used for tendon routing help in modeling a relation between tendon excursion and flexion and provide high grasping force capabilities. The soft material on the palm region ensures retaining flexibility during grasping of objects with varied shapes and supports thumb carpometacarpal (CMC) adjustment. Compactness and portability are ensured through a sliding pulley based slack-tolerant differential mechanism (SPDM), driving all fingers with a single actuator and employing a separate actuator for the thumb. The experimental and functional results of the exoskeleton on a healthy subject demonstrate its adaptive, gross grasping abilities with everyday objects through power grasp, lateral pinch, and parallel extension. These findings encourage further exploration in clinical trials, especially for individuals with hand muscle weaknesses.","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140820256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Advancements in Temporal Fusion: A New Horizon for EEG-Based Motor Imagery Classification","authors":"Saran Kundu;Aman Singh Tomar;Anirban Chowdhury;Gargi Thakur;Aruna Tomar","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3387092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3387092","url":null,"abstract":"BCIs facilitate seamless engagement between individuals with motor disabilities and their surrounding environment by translating electroencephalography (EEG) signals generated from Motor Imagery (MI). Crucial to this process is the accurate classification of different types of MI tasks - a challenge that calls for the consistent evolution and refinement of reliable methodologies for EEG signal classification. This paper introduces three innovative approaches: M1, employing a temporal block technique combined with Filter Bank Common Spatial Pattern (FBCSP) and mutual information-based feature selection with a Random Forest classifier; and M2 and M3, extending M1 using Temporal Probability Fusion (TPF) and Probability Difference-based Temporal Fusion (PDTF) respectively. These methods aim to enhance MI EEG signal classification. The effectiveness of M1, M2, and M3 was scrutinized under differing scenarios including changing overlap sizes and channel choices. The analysis highlights that our methods exhibit enhanced performance under particular conditions, underlining the crucial role of temporal information and channel selection. Comparison with established methodologies verifies the superior efficiency of our proposed strategies. This study foregrounds the considerable potential of TPF and PDTF in MI EEG classification tasks, with significant implications for the future development of BCI systems.","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140820255","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Soft Ankle-Foot Exoskeleton for Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review of Actuation, Sensing, Mechanical Design, and Control Strategy","authors":"Wei Meng;Chang Zhu;Haojie Liu;Quan Liu;Sheng Xie","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385798","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385798","url":null,"abstract":"Robot-assisted rehabilitation therapy has become a mainstream trend for the treatment of stroke patients. It can not only relieve physiotherapists from heavy physical duties, but also provide patients with effective ankle-foot rehabilitation and walking assistance. Soft ankle-foot exoskeletons have rapidly evolved in the last decade. This article presents a compressive review of soft ankle-foot exoskeletons in terms of robot actuation, wearable sensor, mechanical design, and control strategy. Representative commercial and laboratory ankle-foot exoskeletons are demonstrated. Special attention is paid to the emerging soft actuators, wearable sensing techniques, and human-in-the-loop and hierarchical control methods. Finally, essential challenges and possible future directions are also analyzed and highlighted in this paper, which can provide reliable guidance on the development of next-generation soft ankle-foot exoskeletons.","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140820288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Anthony L. Gunderman;Saikat Sengupta;Zhefeng Huang;Dimitri Sigounas;Chima Oluigbo;Isuru S. Godage;Kevin Cleary;Yue Chen
{"title":"Toward MR-Guided Robotic Intracerebral Hemorrhage Evacuation: Aiming Device Design and ex vivo Ovine Head Trial","authors":"Anthony L. Gunderman;Saikat Sengupta;Zhefeng Huang;Dimitri Sigounas;Chima Oluigbo;Isuru S. Godage;Kevin Cleary;Yue Chen","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385794","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385794","url":null,"abstract":"Stereotactic neurosurgery is a well-established surgical technique for navigation and guidance during treatment of intracranial pathologies. Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is an example of various neurosurgical conditions that can benefit from stereotactic neurosurgery. As a part of our ongoing work toward real-time MR-guided ICH evacuation, we aim to address an unmet clinical need for a skull-mounted frameless stereotactic aiming device that can be used with minimally invasive robotic systems for MR-guided interventions. In this paper, we present NICE-Aiming, a Neurosurgical, Interventional, Configurable device for Effective-Aiming in MR-guided robotic neurosurgical interventions. A kinematic model was developed and the system was used with a concentric tube robot (CTR) for ICH evacuation in (i) a skull phantom and (ii) in the first ever reported ex vivo CTR ICH evacuation using an ex vivo ovine head. The NICE-Aiming prototype provided a tip accuracy of 1.41±0.35 mm in free-space. In the MR-guided gel phantom experiment, the targeting accuracy was 2.07±0.42 mm and the residual hematoma volume was 12.87 mL (24.32% of the original volume). In the MR-guided ex vivo ovine head experiment, the targeting accuracy was 2.48±0.48 mm and the residual hematoma volume was 1.42 mL (25.08% of the original volume).","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140820252","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jakob Dideriksen;Eleonore Siebold;Strahinja Dosen;Marko Markovic
{"title":"Investigating the Benefits of Multivariable Proprioceptive Feedback for Upper-Limb Prostheses","authors":"Jakob Dideriksen;Eleonore Siebold;Strahinja Dosen;Marko Markovic","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385983","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385983","url":null,"abstract":"Restoration of somatosensory feedback can improve prosthesis control and user experience. Although modern prosthesis allows movement in multiple degrees of freedom, few studies have attempted to restore multiple proprioceptive feedback variables to give the user awareness of the prosthesis state without excessive visual attention. This study presents and evaluates a feedback system containing four vibration motors embedded in the prosthesis socket to convey hand aperture or wrist rotation angle during sequential prosthesis control. Ten able-bodied and two amputee subjects performed a functional task that involved manipulating fragile objects with varying compliance (with vibrotactile and/or visual or neither). The results indicated that for able-bodied subjects, vibrotactile feedback alone allowed the grasping and rotation with almost the same quality as with visual feedback (no statistically significant difference). In addition, vibrotactile feedback significantly outperformed incidental feedback during wrist rotation control. Similar findings were observed for the amputee subjects. All subjects rated vibrotactile feedback as useful, reliable, and easy to perceive and exploit. Exploiting the vibrotactile feedback, however, required more time than for visual feedback. In conclusion, the proposed feedback system represents an efficient and practical solution to facilitate object manipulation in multiple degrees of freedom, even when visual feedback is not fully available.","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140820292","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ultrasound-Based Robot-Assisted Drilling for Minimally Invasive Pedicle Screw Placement","authors":"Ruixuan Li;Ayoob Davoodi;Maikel Timmermans;Kaat Van Assche;Orçun Taylan;Lennart Scheys;Matthias Tummers;Gianni Borghesan;Emmanuel Vander Poorten","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385793","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385793","url":null,"abstract":"Minimally invasive pedicle screw placement (MIPSP) is a widely used treatment for spine diseases. When coupled with intraoperative navigation modalities, robots may help improve surgical outcomes and reduce complications. With such a system, the application of pedicle screws has been expanded from needle insertion to the spine surgery. This paper investigates the possibility and feasibility of robot-assisted MIPSP based on ultrasound (US) guidance. The proposed system is non-radiative and fiducial-free, using purely image information to close the registration loop. Then the system automatically positions the drill tip to a planned screw trajectory and executes the drilling operation. Experiments were conducted on both ex-vivo lamb and human cadaver spines. An entry point accuracy of \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$2.39pm 1.41$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 mm, and orientation accuracy of \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$2.82pm 1.85^{circ }$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 was found for 24 drilled trajectories on three lamb spines. On the ex-vivo human spine, the position error averaged \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$3.08pm 2.43$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 mm at the entry point and \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$4.05pm 2.62$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 mm at the stop point across 16 drilling instances. Moreover, a \u0000<inline-formula> <tex-math>$87.5%$ </tex-math></inline-formula>\u0000 success rate was reported by using Gertzbein-Robbins grade. The experimental results demonstrate the potential for offering a radiation-free alternative. Although restricted to cadaver trials, this work encourages further exploration of this technology to assist surgeons in maximizing performance in clinical practice.","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141965881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fernando Gonzalez-Herrera;Florent Nageotte;Philippe Zanne;Gianni Borghesan;Michel de Mathelin;Emmanuel Vander Poorten;Benoit Rosa
{"title":"A Semi-Autonomous Control Mode for Flexible Steerable Intraluminal Platforms","authors":"Fernando Gonzalez-Herrera;Florent Nageotte;Philippe Zanne;Gianni Borghesan;Michel de Mathelin;Emmanuel Vander Poorten;Benoit Rosa","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385990","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385990","url":null,"abstract":"Flexible steerable intraluminal robot platforms allow treatment and screening of colorectal cancer at an early stage, potentially reducing the associated incidence and mortality rates. Such robotic platforms often rely on a tree-like flexible architecture, with a flexible robotized body carrying both the endoscope camera and two robotized flexible surgical arms at its distal end. Telemanipulating these robotic platforms to correctly perform surgical tasks is technically difficult due to their kinematic complexity and the demanding nature of the task, which leads to potential interruptions in the surgical workflow. In this paper, a technique to efficiently control the arms and body and correctly perform complex surgical steps during the endoscopic submucosal dissection procedure is proposed. The technique, referred to as semi-autonomous arm-body control, is based on a quadratic programming controller. Custom-defined tasks synergistically control the arms and body, while avoiding unsafe positions for the arms. Experiments in a mixed physical-simulated setup with eight users show an increased performance on the task and smoother movements compared to manual telemanipulation, at the expense of a slightly longer operating time. Further study will look at validating the approach in more realistic scenarios.","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141965838","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"FEEBY: A Flexible Framework for Fast Prototyping and Assessment of Vibrotactile Feedback for Hand Prostheses","authors":"Nikolina Maravic;Strahinja Dosen;Filip Gasparic;Christian Hofer;Michael Russold;Mario Koppe;Jose Gonzalez-Vargas;Nikola Jorgovanovic;Darko Stanisic","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385790","url":null,"abstract":"Enhancing a myoelectric prosthesis with artificial somatosensory feedback is important for providing a complete bionic replacement. The development of feedback comprises several steps, from the selection of stimulation interface, variables, and encoding schemes to testing in non-disabled and amputee subjects. In most cases, specific configurations are implemented and tested. To support a more flexible approach to the development of feedback, where an interface can be iteratively tested and gradually refined, we developed FEEBY - a software and hardware framework for fast prototyping and assessment of feedback both in and out of the lab. FEEBY comprises a PC application for feedback design and subject training, an embedded system for clinical testing, and a smaller version of the system for home use. The system capabilities and the feedback design process were demonstrated by conducting illustrative experiments on 6 non-disabled participants and 1 transradial amputee, who also used the system at home. The results of the present study demonstrated that FEEBY is a compact, low-power, and robust system that can enable the systematic development of feedback and its assessment in ecological conditions. The latter aspect is particularly important to reach the ultimate goal, i.e., a feedback system that matters in daily life.","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140820249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Katalin Schäffer;Yasemin Ozkan-Aydin;Margaret M. Coad
{"title":"Soft Wrist Exosuit Actuated by Fabric Pneumatic Artificial Muscles","authors":"Katalin Schäffer;Yasemin Ozkan-Aydin;Margaret M. Coad","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385795","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3385795","url":null,"abstract":"Recently, soft actuator-based exosuits have gained interest, due to their high strength-to-weight ratio, inherent safety, and low cost. We present a novel wrist exosuit actuated by fabric pneumatic artificial muscles that has lightweight wearable components (160 g) and can move the wrist in flexion/extension and ulnar/radial deviation. We derive a model representing the torque exerted by the exosuit and demonstrate the use of the model to choose an optimal design for an example user. We evaluate the accuracy of the model by measuring the exosuit torques throughout the full range of wrist flexion/extension. We show the importance of accounting for the displacement of the mounting points, as this helps to achieve the smallest mean absolute error (0.283 Nm) compared to other models. Furthermore, we present the measurement of the exosuit-actuated range of motion on a passive human wrist. Finally, we demonstrate the device controlling the passive human wrist to move to a desired orientation along a one and a two-degree-of-freedom trajectory. The evaluation results show that, compared to other pneumatically actuated wrist exosuits, the presented exosuit is lightweight and strong (with peak torque of 3.3 Nm) but has a limited range of motion.","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140820295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elaheh Arefinia;Jayender Jagadeesan;Rajni V. Patel
{"title":"Machine-Learning-Based Multi-Modal Force Estimation for Steerable Ablation Catheters","authors":"Elaheh Arefinia;Jayender Jagadeesan;Rajni V. Patel","doi":"10.1109/TMRB.2024.3407590","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TMRB.2024.3407590","url":null,"abstract":"Catheter-based cardiac ablation is a minimally invasive procedure for treating atrial fibrillation (AF). Electrophysiologists perform the procedure under image guidance during which the contact force between the heart tissue and the catheter tip determines the quality of lesions created. This paper describes a novel multi-modal contact force estimator based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs). The estimator takes the shape and optical flow of the deflectable distal section as two modalities since frames and motion between frames complement each other to capture the long context in the video frames of the catheter. The angle between the tissue and the catheter tip is considered a complement of the extracted shape. The data acquisition platform measures the two-degrees-of-freedom contact force and video data as the catheter motion is constrained in the imaging plane. The images are captured via a camera that simulates single-view fluoroscopy for experimental purposes. In this sensor-free procedure, the features of the images and optical flow modalities are extracted through transfer learning. Long Short-Term Memory Networks (LSTMs) with a memory fusion network (MFN) are implemented to consider time dependency and hysteresis due to friction. The architecture integrates spatial and temporal networks. Late fusion with the concatenation of LSTMs, transformer decoders, and Gated Recurrent Units (GRUs) are implemented to verify the feasibility of the proposed network-based approach and its superiority over single-modality networks. The resulting mean absolute error, which accounted for only 2.84% of the total magnitude, was obtained by collecting data under more realistic circumstances in contrast to previous research studies. The decrease in error is considerably better than that achieved by individual modalities and late fusion with concatenation. These results emphasize the practicality and relevance of utilizing a multi-modal network in real-world scenarios.","PeriodicalId":73318,"journal":{"name":"IEEE transactions on medical robotics and bionics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141965833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}