A compact control system and a myoelectric control method for multi-DOFs prosthetic hand

This paper introduces a compact control system for multi-DOFs prosthetic hand. Based on the optimization of sensors configuration and hardware structure of the control system, the power consumption and volume can meet the needs of the actual using. In addition, a myoelectric control method based on the principle of finite state machine (FSM) is integrated in the control system. The proposed method enables amputees to select one of the given gestures directly, and grasp objects. As the control method requires less electromyography electrodes comparing to the traditional myoelectric control method based on EMG pattern recognition, it's available for a wider range of amputees with less active muscles. To assess the performance of the proposed method, the experiments of grasping random objects by non-amputee subjects has been conducted with the 6-DOFs HIT-V prosthetic hand, and an amputee volunteer used this prosthetic hand for one day to demonstrate viability. The non-amputee experimental results indicate that subjects can select gesture correctly among seven gestures and accomplish the designed grasping tasks with a success rate up to 96.67% within a shorter time just using two electrodes, and amputee proved viability of proposed method in daily life.