ORIGINAL ARTICLE Effect of arm position on the prediction of kinematics from EMG in amputees

Abstract Myoelectric control has been extensively applied in multi-function hand/wrist prostheses. The per-formance of this type of control is however, influenced by several practical factors that still limit its clinical applica-bility. One of these factors is the change in arm posture during the daily use of prostheses. In this study, we investigate the effect of arm position on the performance of a simultaneous and proportional myoelectric control algo-rithm, both on trans-radial amputees and able-bodied sub-jects. The results showed that changing arm position adversely influences the performance of the algorithm for both subject groups, but that this influence is less pro-nounced in amputee subjects with respect to able-bodied subjects. Thus, the impact of arm posture on myoelectric control cannot be inferred from results on able-bodied subjects and should be directly investigated in amputee subjects