Yinlai JIANG (姜 銀来)

Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, System Name: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Fund Type: -, Overall Grant Amount: - (direct: 3300000, indirect: 990000)
Surface electromyography (sEMG) has been widely investigated as a biological signal from which motion intentions can be recognized to control prosthetic hands. The availability and quality of sEMG can limit the usability and intuitiveness of advanced prosthetic hands that can restore most necessary hand movements. This study introduces force myography (FMG) as a supplementary signal and develops a hybrid sensor to measure sEMG and FMG signals simultaneously. Furthermore, a layer-fusion convolutional neural network (CNN) was proposed to analyze the sEMG and FMG signals. The recognition results of hand motion showed a significantly improved classification accuracy (CA) of the hybrid sEMG and FMG with respect to individual modality due to the rubustness of FMG. The FMG-assisted sEMG sensing approach can effectively offer great potential in the clinical application of sophisticated prosthetic hands without increasing burden to the user.

Offer Organization: 日本学術振興会, System Name: 科学研究費助成事業 基盤研究(A), Category: 基盤研究(A), Fund Type: -, Overall Grant Amount: - (direct: 33500000, indirect: 10050000)
本研究は，前腕切断者用の筋電義手として，自由度の高い運動能力と感覚の代替機能の実現を目指して，指先の触圧感覚と関節角のフィードバック機構を有する5指ハンドの開発を行い，筋電制御システムを利用して，切断者の手指動作の再建の課題に挑戦する．
課題は，メカ開発とセンサグローブ開発の2項目からなる．
メカ開発では，ワイヤー干渉駆動法を用いて軽量・多自由度・高出力を有する5指ロボットハンドを試作し，性能評価を通して改良し，筋電義手に適用可能な設計法を明らかにすることを目指した．2021年度においては，3名の成人前腕切断者に，試作した5指駆動型筋電義手を適用し，フィールドテストを行った．期間中3回のフィールドテスト評価では，自由度義手との性能差を，BBT（Box and Block Test）及びCarroll test等の評価試験によって比較し，有用性を評価した．
当多自由度義手は，国内2例目の筋電義手として，2022年3月31日，厚生労働省補装具完成用部品に指定された．
センサグローブ開発においては，導電性シリコンを応用することにより，指先の触圧と関節角を計測し，これを振動子を用いて断端部ソケットに伝達することを目的として，開発を進めた．2020年度においては，さらに，感覚のフィードバックの方法として視覚への映像変化として情報提示を行う方法を開発し，前述の触覚と聴覚へのフィードバックとのパフォーマンス比較実験を行った．患者への触覚のフィードバック方法として申請当初はボイスコイルによる振動フィードバックを検討していたが，2021年度に再検討し，フィードバックの呈示装置として骨伝導イヤホンを採用することとし，有効性検証のため，聴覚刺激を行いながら日常生活音を聞き応答する二重課題法を行い，人の囁き声に当たる30～40dBの小さな音に応答できること，これが日常生活を阻害しないことを明らかにした．

Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, System Name: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B), Fund Type: -, Overall Grant Amount: - (direct: 3200000, indirect: 960000)
In this study, we aimed to model a mechanism of voluntary control of human multi-muscle, and apply it for controlling EMG shoulder disarticulation prosthesis. First, a notion of voluntary control was introduced to the framework of muscle synergy analysis. Then, our experiments demonstrated that voluntarily activatable muscle synergies could be extracted by using an appropriate index. It was also suggested that the muscle synergy is not a minimum unit of voluntary muscle control. Moreover, we applied the notion of the synergy freezing degrees of freedom to the EMG shoulder disarticulation prosthesis system so as to control its robot-arm movements by low degrees of freedom input. As a result, both-shoulder amputee user could use our developed EMG shoulder disarticulation prosthesis to pick an object and place on it. Above results showed the usability of our proposed notion “humanize-robotics.”

Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, System Name: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Fund Type: -, Overall Grant Amount: - (direct: 2700000, indirect: 810000)
Surface electrodes are required to measure the EMG (Electromyography) signals for the control of myoelectric prosthetic hands. This study developed conductive silicon by mixing silicon with aggregative carbon black. The conductive silicon was applied to metallic non-woven fabric to create materials for the electrodes. Since the electrodes are supposed to be used between the skin and the socket, the influence of force to the quality of the EMG signal was investigated. The electrodes were encapsulated in insulating silicon to be applicable to circumstances with sweat or water. Furthermore, a pressure-sensitive sensor was developed with the conductive silicon, which can be integrated into the prosthetic hand to provide sensory function.

Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, System Name: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Fund Type: -, Overall Grant Amount: - (direct: 3700000, indirect: 1110000)
sEMG (Surface Electromyography) is the electric activity of groups of muscles measured with electrodes on the skin surface. Since it reflects motion intentions, sEMG has been studied as a signal to control welfare machines. This study investigated the electrodes, measurement method, and selection of multi-channel sEMG signals. Soft and wearable sEMG electrodes were developed with conductive polymers and conductive silicon. The relation between bioelectric characteristics and the quality of sEMG was elucidated. And a multi-channel sEMG measurement system was developed and validated with healthy subjects and amputees.

Offer Organization: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, System Name: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research, Fund Type: -, Overall Grant Amount: - (direct: 2600000, indirect: 780000)
To build a robot that can care for bedridden disabled people, who cannot express their intentions in language or letters, we have developed Fuzzy_BCI. The Fuzzy_BCI system uses a minimally invasive brain measurement device that does not restrain the body or head, meanwhile, it can recognize vague intentions such as "I want to drink cold water" or "Lower the temperature setting of the air conditioner because it is hot". Specifically, the somatosensory cortex and somatosensory joint cortex were measured considering physiologically vague concepts (e.g., “hot”, “warm”, and “painful”). Also, a relationship was found between room temperature changes and hemoglobin concentration changes. In addition, regarding the relationship between local temperature sensation and heart movement, useful results were obtained by comparing measurement results of frontal lobe near the primary motor cortex and somatosensory cortex with the results of the Profile of Mood States 2nd Edition (POMS2) test.