Evaluation of EMG, Force and Joystick as Control Interfaces for Active Upper-Extremity Movement-Assistive Devices

摘要: Currently, many different control interfaces for the operation of active movement-assistive device exist but their respective performance capabilities and limitations remain unclear. The goal this study was to quantitatively evaluate learning characteristics EMG-, force- hand joystick-based interfaces. human operator abilities were assessed in 8 healthy subjects using a screen-based one-dimensional position-tracking task, where interface signal mapped velocity cursor target moving according multi-sine with flat spectrum. evaluated terms tracking error, human-operator bandwidth, information transmission rate effort. Results showed significant differences between all descriptors: presented significantly higher error compared EMG- (p<0.001) force-based (p<0.005) interfaces; EMG-based bandwidth than provided rates interface; lower effort None superior four descriptors, more positive results However, practice, descriptors should be weighted requirements specific application determine which is most suitable particular upper-extremity device.