[D86] Skin-Stretch Proprioceptive Feedback for a Robotic Gripper

Xuejiao Liang, Caitlin R. Makatura, Michael Schubert, Bryan H. Solomon, Julie M. Walker, Amy A. Blank, Marcia K. O’Malley Rice University

Although recent improvements in prosthetic Technologynology allow a user to control an upper limb prosthesis with some dexterity, a method for receiving pro-prioceptive feedback from the prosthetic limb has not yet been implemented in com-mercial hardware. The user must rely on visual feedback to know where his or her limb is in space. We will demonstrate a wearable prototype skin-stretch device that rotates the skin about the circumference of the upper arm to relay proprioceptive information. The device consists of a rubber pad moved by a friction drive that stretches the skin to the right or left by an amount proportional to the gripper aper-ture. In this demonstration, users will wear the device while controlling a prosthetic gripper and perceive gripper aperture through the resulting skin-stretch cues. We hypothesize that performance operating a prosthetic gripper without visual feedback will be improved.