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© 2019 Hichert et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Operating a body-powered prosthesis can be painful and tiring due to high cable operation forces, illustrating that low cable operation forces are a desirable design property for body-powered prostheses. However, lower operation forces might negatively affect controllability and force perception, which is plausible but not known. This study aims to quantify the accuracy of cable force perception and control for body-powered prostheses in a low cable operation force range by utilizing isometric and dynamic force reproduction experiments. Twenty-five subjects with trans-radial absence conducted two force reproduction tasks; first an isometric task of reproducing 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 or 40 N and second a force reproduction task of 10 and 20 N, for cable excursions of 10, 20, 40, 60 and 80 mm. Task performance was quantified by the force reproduction error and the variability in the generated force. The results of the isometric experiment demonstrated that increasing force levels enlarge the force variability, but do not influence the force reproduction error for the tested force range. The second experiment showed that increased cable excursions resulted in a decreased force reproduction error, for both tested force levels, whereas the force variability remained unchanged. In conclusion, the design recommendations for voluntary closing body-powered prostheses suggested by this study are to minimize cable operation forces: this does not affect force reproduction error but does reduce force variability. Furthermore, increased cable excursions facilitate users with additional information to meet a target force more accurately.

Details

Title
Perception and control of low cable operation forces in voluntary closing body-powered upper-limb prostheses
Author
Hichert, Mona; Abbink, David A; Vardy, Alistair N; Corry K van der Sluis; Janssen, Wim G M; Brouwers, Michael A H; Plettenburg, Dick H
First page
e0225263
Section
Research Article
Publication year
2019
Publication date
Nov 2019
Publisher
Public Library of Science
e-ISSN
19326203
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2317036086
Copyright
© 2019 Hichert et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.