Robotic arm for testing and demonstration of targeted muscle reinnervation with implications for low-cost upper-limb prostheses

Targeted Muscle Reinnervation is a relatively new surgical procedure that endeavors to make control of upper-limb prostheses more intuitive for amputees. This procedure reroutes residual nerve bundles from an amputated limb to muscles in the chest or proximal to the site of amputation in the arm, producing EMGs in response to motor commands. These EMGs are traditionally collected using surface electrodes. Research is ongoing to design an implantable electrode that can read these EMG signals directly from the muscle, which would increase the integrity of the retrieved signal by creating more permanent, stable connections between the muscles and the signal collectors. A robotic arm testing system was developed in order to test the efficacy of these implantable electrodes and demonstrate a complete system from EMG signal retrieval to motion triggering in an upper-limb prosthetic. This robotic arm offers up to six degrees of freedom intended to closely replicate the capabilities of a biological arm. The objectives and scope of the robotic arm project as well as its design and abilities is the focus of this work. In addition, its implications for designing low-cost prostheses for the Third World will be explored and discussed