MOBILE PLATFORM INTERFACE FOR CONTROLLING AND MONITORING ARTIFICIAL LIMBS

Abstract: An artificial limb driven by myoelectric signals provides individuals suffering from upper limb amputation a means to perform some daily activities that would otherwise be impossible to perform. Although promising, the functionality of the limb is however still limited due to signal drift and changing requirements for different daily activities. The ability for the user to adjust control parameters on the artificial limb in real time could enhance the quality of life for these people by improving the performance of the artificial limb. During this master thesis, a mobile platform for communication and configuration of an artificial limb has been developed based on previous work by Max Ortiz C et al. The communication between the embedded system and the mobile application is based on a bluetooth standard and have been verified in conjunction with a customized communication protocol.Qualitative validation was performed by analyzing a collected questioner from one patient suffering an upper limb amputation. The results showed that functionality of the artificial limb is still one of the most important areas that needs to be improved. In addition, the most important types of feedback currently lacking were tactile feedback and elbow functionality. Quantitative experimental tests showed a statistically significant improvement in terms of both artificial limb response time and movement prediction accuracy when the threshold value, used by the control system to make a movement prediction, was adjusted in real time through the mobile application as compared to having a fixed threshold. These results shed new light on the potential benefits of using a mobile interface for real-time adjustment of limb parameters.