A Functional Electrical Stimulation Controller for Contralateral Hand Movements Based on EMG Signals

摘要

This work presents the implementation and testing of a control strategy for functional electrical stimulation of hand movements. The system is capable of producing continuous power grasp and hand opening movements on the right hand, through amplitude modulation of two stimulation channels, based on surface electromyography signals from two contralateral hand muscles. The solution comprises: a finite state machine, a movement classifier, a proportional mapping, and a biofeedback control strategy. The movement classifier algorithm was evaluated offline with a healthy volunteer, obtaining a 81.72% average accuracy. The controller was tested successfully in an online test where a functional task was performed, involving six-step and the power grasp and hand opening movements. Therefore, this controller and sEMG-FES system developed are a suitable alternative for FES-based mirror-therapy of the hand, and motor rehabilitation of hemiplegic stroke patients.