Research Projects

The Défense services Artificial Limb Centre India has identified a significant issue faced by upper limb amputees in performing daily routine tasks. Upper limb amputation is primarily caused by crush injuries, accidents, electric shock, and diseases like Gangrene. With over 0.5 million amputees in India, nearly 23,500 are added annually, making it crucial to improve the quality of life for these amputees. The proposed work aims to design a novel prosthetic arm using brain computer interface (BCI), integrate the prosthetic arm with a brain sensor and micro controller, and conduct user trials to evaluate the performance of the developed system. The methodology adopted includes solid modeling of the prosthetic system using CAD software and 3D printing, multi-body dynamics simulations, placement of electrodes on the user's scalp for EEG signal acquisition, processing of signals using boosted tree-based or feed-forward algorithms, decision-making algorithm for commanding the robotic arm through a micro controller, comparison of user's brain signals with a trained model, and use of OsC-BCI software for data acquisition from the EPOC flex brain sensor. The project aims to improve the capabilities of existing prosthetic arms and boost their confidence in social and professional settings. User trials will be published, and observations and conclusions will be published for the research community. The ultimate goal is to enable arm amputees to perform routine tasks independently and boost their confidence in social and professional environments.