Research Projects

Upper limb loss affects people's daily activities, and researchers have attempted to replicate the complex functionalities of the human upper limb through prostheses. However, patients face challenges in controlling degrees of freedom movement. Recent developments in non-invasive EEG-based Brain Machine Interfaces have opened a new alternative to control prosthesis, as invasive techniques like targeted muscle reinnervation are complex and ineffective due to the lack of available muscles. In India, there are 2.28 million people with some type of disability, and there are about 0.5 million amputees, with around 23500 new amputees added each year. The total number of persons with an amputation and those using a below elbow upper limb prosthesis has increased at least 47% in the last six years. The Indian market for Orthopedic prosthetic devices is nearly $1.8 billion, and a 3D printed prosthetic arm would cost nearly £5000 ($4.5 lakh) compared to £30000 ($27 lakh) to £60000 ($54 lakh) for a regular one. Objectives include designing and fabricating an active Transradial Bionic Prosthetic Limb and proposing a hybrid control method for hand motions of prosthesis using EEG and EMG signals with haptic feedback to more closely replicate an actual human arm. The approach will start with extraction of EEG and EMG-based features followed by classification using machine learning/deep learning classifiers. Innovative solutions in transradial prosthetics could pave the way for new ideas of assisting human body parts where biomedical signal actuated limbs need to be operative. Research focusing on manipulating movements of muscles, fingers, joints, and ankles could encourage scientists from various disciplines to progress further into these domains.