Paolini Roberto, Liu Fangqi, Scarpelli Alessia, Demofonti Andrea, Cordella Francesca, Jiang Dai, Demosthenous Andreas, Zollo Loredana
Research Unit of Advanced Robotics and Human-Centred Technologies, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Rome, Italy.
Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, London, UK.
Wearable Technol. 2025 Aug 11;6:e40. doi: 10.1017/wtc.2025.10004. eCollection 2025.
The adoption of upper limb myoelectric prosthesis is limited by the lack of closed control loop systems. Although the efferent control has already been integrated into these devices, the sensory feedback restoration in the afferent channel still remains an open challenge. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a promising method for generating somatotopic sensory feedback, allowing the closure of the control loop system. The application of this technique is limited by cumbersome and grid-powered electrical stimulators, making them unsuitable for everyday life, whereas most portable stimulators available on the market are designed for other purposes (e.g., muscular stimulation or pain therapy) and present limited stimulation wave customization. The stimulation devices employed in the literature often produce not fully suitable stimulation parameters and are frequently validated through procedures that do not fully clarify their practical application for sensory feedback restoration. The research aims to present a novel wearable TENS stimulation device (46 g, 62 × 49 × 20 mm) suitable for sensory feedback application. The validation was achieved through a benchtop test and a preliminary analysis on 10 healthy participants comparing the qualities, intensities, and stimulated areas of the sensations elicited by the proposed device and a reference stimulator. The proposed device is capable of delivering charge-balanced stimulation waves over skin-like resistive load and eliciting tingling and vibration sensations with similar intensities compared to the adopted reference.
上肢肌电假肢的应用受到缺乏闭环控制系统的限制。尽管传出控制已被集成到这些设备中，但传入通道中的感觉反馈恢复仍然是一个有待解决的挑战。经皮电神经刺激（TENS）是一种产生躯体感觉反馈的有前景的方法，可实现控制环路系统的闭环。该技术的应用受到笨重且需电网供电的电刺激器的限制，使其不适用于日常生活，而市场上大多数现有的便携式刺激器是为其他目的设计的（如肌肉刺激或疼痛治疗），且刺激波定制有限。文献中使用的刺激设备通常产生不太合适的刺激参数，并且经常通过不能充分阐明其在感觉反馈恢复中的实际应用的程序进行验证。本研究旨在展示一种适用于感觉反馈应用的新型可穿戴TENS刺激设备（46克，62×49×20毫米）。通过台式测试以及对10名健康参与者进行初步分析来进行验证，比较所提出的设备和参考刺激器所引发感觉的质量、强度和刺激区域。所提出的设备能够在类似皮肤的电阻负载上传递电荷平衡的刺激波，并引发与所采用的参考刺激器强度相似的刺痛和振动感觉。
