Article

The ease with which persons with upper-limb amputations can control their powered
prostheses is largely determined by the efficacy of the user command interface.
One needs to understand the abilities of the human operator regarding the
different available options. Electromyography (EMG) is widely used to control
powered upper-limb prostheses. It is an indirect estimator of muscle force and
may be expected to limit the control capabilities of the prosthesis user. This
study compared EMG control with force control, an interface that is used in
everyday interactions with the environment. We used both methods to perform a
position-tracking task. Direct-position control of the wrist provided an upper
bound for human-operator capabilities. The results demonstrated that an EMG
control interface is as effective as force control for the position-tracking
task. We also examined the effects of gain and tracking frequency on EMG control
to explore the limits of this control interface.
We found that information
transmission rates for myoelectric control were best at higher tracking
frequencies than at the frequencies previously reported for position control. The
results may be useful for the design of prostheses and prosthetic controllers.

Langue : ANGLAIS