TY - JOUR T1 - The SoftHand Pro: Functional evaluation of a novel, flexible, and robust myoelectric prosthesis JF - PLOS One Y1 - 2018 A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - K. Zhao A1 - A. Theuer A1 - M. G. Catalano A1 - M. Bianchi A1 - R. Breighner A1 - D. Bhaskaran A1 - R. Lennon A1 - G. Grioli A1 - M. Santello A1 - A. Bicchi A1 - K. Andrews ER - TY - JOUR T1 - SoftHand at the CYBATHLON: A user's experience JF - JOURNAL OF NEUROENGINEERING AND REHABILITATION Y1 - 2017 A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - M. Rossi A1 - C. Piazza A1 - M. G. Catalano A1 - M. Bianchi A1 - G. Grioli A1 - K. Zhao A1 - A. Bicchi ER - TY - JOUR T1 - The SoftHand Pro-H: A Hybrid Body-Controlled, Electrically Powered Hand Prosthesis for Daily Living and Working JF - IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine Y1 - 2017 A1 - C. Piazza A1 - M. G. Catalano A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - M. Rossi A1 - G. Grioli A1 - M. Bianchi A1 - K. Zhao A1 - A. Bicchi KW - Haptics KW - Robotics UR - http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8110634 N1 -

This work was supported by the European Commission project (Horizon 2020 research program) SOFTPRO 688857, the European Research Council under the Advanced Grant SoftHands “A Theory of Soft Synergies for a New Generation of Artificial Hands,” ERC-291166, and the Proof of Concept Project SoftHand Pro-H, ERC-2016-PoC 727536. 

ER - TY - CONF T1 - Influence of Force Feedback on Grasp Force Modulation in Prosthetic Applications: a Preliminary Study T2 - Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference Y1 - 2016 A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - M. Bianchi A1 - A. Bicchi A1 - M. Santello JF - Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2016 38th Annual International Conference CY - Orlando, USA, August 16-20, 2016 UR - http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7591957 ER - TY - CHAP T1 - The SoftHand Pro: Translation from Robotic Hand to Prosthetic Prototype T2 - Converging Clinical and Engineering Research on Neurorehabilitation II Y1 - 2016 A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - M. Bianchi A1 - K. Zhao A1 - M. G. Catalano A1 - R. Breighner A1 - A. Theuer A1 - K. Andrews A1 - G. Grioli A1 - M. Santello A1 - A. Bicchi KW - Haptics KW - Robotics AB -

This work presents the translation from a humanoid robotic hand to a prosthetic prototype and its first evaluation in a set of 9 persons with amputation. The Pisa/IIT SoftHand is an underactuated hand built on the neuroscientific principle of motor synergies enabling it to perform natural, human-like movements and mold around grasped objects with minimal control input. These features motivated the development of the SoftHand Pro, a prosthetic version of the SoftHand built to interface with a prosthetic socket. The results of the preliminary testing of the SoftHand Pro showed it to be a highly functional design with an intuitive control system. Present results warrant further testing to develop the SoftHand Pro.

JF - Converging Clinical and Engineering Research on Neurorehabilitation II PB - Springer International Publishing VL - 15 UR - http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-46669-9_78 N1 -

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on NeuroRehabilitation (ICNR2016), October 18-21, 2016, Segovia, Spain

ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Teleimpedance Control: Overview and application T2 - Human and Robot Hands Y1 - 2016 A1 - A. Ajoudani A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - N. G. Tsagarakis A1 - A. Bicchi KW - Robotics AB -

In previous chapters, human hand and arm kinematics have been analyzed through a synergstic approach and the underlying concepts were used to design robotic systems and devise simplified control algorithms. On the other hand, it is well-known that synergies can be studied also at a muscular level as a coordinated activation of multiple muscles acting as a single unit to generate different movements. As a result, muscular activations, quantified through Electromyography (EMG) signals can be then processed and used as direct inputs to external devices with a large number of DOFs. In this chapter, we present a minimalistic approach based on tele-impedance control, where EMGs from only one pair of antagonistic muscle pair are used to map the users postural and stiffness references to the synergy-driven anthropomorphic robotic hand, described in chapter 6. In this direction, we first provide an overview of the teleimpedance control concept which forms the basis for the development of the hand controller. Eventually, experimental results evaluate the effectiveness of the teleimpedance control concept in execution of the tasks which require significant dynamics variation or are executed in remote environments with dynamic uncertainties.

JF - Human and Robot Hands VL - Springer Series on Touch and Haptic Systems ER - TY - CONF T1 - Effect of Homogenous Object Stiffness on Tri-digit Grasp Properties T2 - 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC2015) Y1 - 2015 A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - Altobelli, A A1 - M. Rossi A1 - A. Bicchi KW - Haptics KW - Robotics AB -
This paper presents experimental findings on how humans modulate their muscle activity while grasping objects of varying levels of compliance. We hypothesize that one of the key abilities that allows humans to successfully cope with uncertainties while grasping compliant objects is the ability to modulate muscle activity to control both grasp force and stiffness in a way that is coherent with the task. To that end, subjects were recruited to perform a grasp and lift task with a tripod-grasp device with contact surfaces of variable compliance. Subjects performed the task under four different compliance conditions while surface EMG from the main finger flexor and extensor muscles was recorded along with force and torque data at the contact points. Significant increases in the extensor muscle (the antagonist in the task) and co-contraction levels were found with increasing compliance at the contact points. These results suggest that the motor system may employ a strategy of increasing cocontraction, and thereby stiffness, to counteract the decreased stability in grasping compliant objects. Future experiments will examine the extent to which this phenomenon is also related to specific task features, such as precision versus power grasp and object weight.
 
JF - 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC2015) PB - IEEE CY - Milano, Italy, August 25th-29th, 2015 UR - http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7319931 N1 -
This work is supported in part by the European Research Council under the Advanced Grant SoftHands “A Theory of Soft Synergies for a New Generation of Artificial Hands” no. ERC-291166 and under the EU FP7 project WEARHAP “WEARable HAPtics for Humans and Robots” no. 601165.
ER - TY - CONF T1 - Electromyographic Mapping of Finger Stiffness in Tripod Grasp: a Proof of Concept T2 - International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), 2015 Y1 - 2015 A1 - M. Rossi A1 - Altobelli, A A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - A. Ajoudani A1 - A. Bicchi KW - Haptics KW - Robotics AB -

Effective execution of a manipulation task using prosthetic or robotic hands requires that the motion and the impedance profiles of the fingers be appropriately commanded. This, however, brings some design and control challenges regarding the individual planning and realization of the finger motion and stiffnesstrajectories. It appears that the central nervous system solves for this complexity in an effective and coordinated manner which has been well-recognized under the concept of hand synergies. While the exploitation of this concept in kinematic coordinates has lead to the development of several successful robotic designs and control strategies, its extension to dynamic coordinates, such as coordinated stiffening of the fingers, remains to be investigated. Indeed, in this study we provide preliminary evidence on the existence of such coordinated stiffening patterns in human fingers and establish initial steps towards a real-time and effective modelling of the finger stiffness in a tripod grasp. To achieve this goal, the endpoint stiffness of the thumb, index and middle fingers of five healthy subjects are experimentally identified and correlated with the electromyography (EMG) signals recorded from a dominant antagonistic pair of the forearm muscles. Our findings suggest that: i) the magnitude of thestiffness ellipses at the fingertips grows in a coordinated way, subsequent to the co-contraction of the forearm muscles; ii) the length of the ellipses' axes appears to have a nearly linear relationship with the co-contraction level of the antagonistic muscle pair.

JF - International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR), 2015 PB - IEEE CY - Singapore, 11 – 14 August 2015 UR - http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=7281196 N1 -

softhands, wearhap

ER - TY - CONF T1 - Exploring haptic feedback for the Pisa/IIT SoftHand T2 - Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS), 2014 IEEE Y1 - 2014 A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - A. Ajoudani A1 - M. Bianchi A1 - M. G. Catalano A1 - G. Grioli A1 - A. Bicchi KW - Haptics KW - Robotics JF - Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS), 2014 IEEE CY - Houston, TX ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Exploring Teleimpedance and Tactile Feedback for Intuitive Control of the Pisa/IIT SoftHand JF - IEEE Transactions on Haptics Y1 - 2014 A1 - A. Ajoudani A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - M. G. Catalano A1 - M. Bianchi A1 - G. Grioli A1 - N G Tsagarakis A1 - A. Bicchi KW - Haptics KW - Robotics VL - 7 UR - http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6755554 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Peripheral Machine Interfaces: going beyond traditional surface electromyography JF - Frontiers in Neurorobotics Y1 - 2014 A1 - C. Castellini A1 - P. Artemiadis A1 - M. Wininger A1 - A. Ajoudani A1 - M. Alimusaj A1 - A. Bicchi A1 - B. Caputo A1 - W. Craelius A1 - S. Dosen A1 - K. Englehart A1 - D. Farina A1 - A. Gijsberts A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - L. Hargrove A1 - M. Ison A1 - T. Kuiken A1 - M. Markovic A1 - P. M. Pilarski A1 - R. Rupp A1 - E. Scheme KW - Robotics VL - 8 IS - 22 ER - TY - CONF T1 - A synergy-driven approach to a myoelectric hand T2 - 13TH International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics Y1 - 2013 A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - A. Ajoudani A1 - M. G. Catalano A1 - G. Grioli A1 - A. Bicchi KW - Haptics KW - Robotics JF - 13TH International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics CY - June 24-26, 2013, Seattle, WA. UR - 10.1109/ICORR.2013.6650377 ER - TY - CONF T1 - Teleimpedance Control of a Synergy-Driven Anthropomorphic Hand T2 - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2013 Y1 - 2013 A1 - A. Ajoudani A1 - S. B. Godfrey A1 - M. G. Catalano A1 - G. Grioli A1 - N G Tsagarakis A1 - A. Bicchi KW - Haptics KW - Robotics JF - IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2013 CY - Tokyo, Japan ER -