Tongue control of a multi-functional arm prosthesis

The thesis of this Industrial PhD project is based on that persons undergoing amputations will lose a higher degree of arm functionality as the level of amputation rises, and at the same time the number of myoelectric signals available for control of electric arm prosthesis will decrease.
The control strategy used in myoelectric arm prostheses today is based on sequential control, thus shifting between the different degrees of freedom of the prosthesis is done using co-contractions. Using this sequential control in prostheses with a higher number of degrees of freedom is assumed to quickly become a troublesome and non-user-friendly task.
Moreover, with the advances in hand prosthetics that allow for a much higher degree of dexterity and i.e. five different types of grasping, the use of sequential control will be even more troublesome.
Therefore the purpose of this project will be to investigate the possibilities of using a tongue control system as an additional input for myoelectric arm and hand prostheses, and hereby obtain a larger number of control signals.
Collaboration with the companies Sahva A/S and TKS A/S.