EMG-Driven Machine Learning Control of a Soft Glove for Grasping Assistance and Rehabilitation

In the field of rehabilitation robotics, transparent, precise and intuitive control of hand exoskeletons still represents a substantial challenge. In particular, the use of compliant systems often leads to a trade-off between lightness and material flexibility, and control precision. In this letter, we present a compliant, actuated glove with a control scheme to detectthe user’s motion intent, which is estimated by a machine learning algorithm based on muscle activity. Six healthy study participants used the glove in three assistance conditions during a force reaching task. The results suggest that active assistance from the glove can aid the user, reducing the muscular activity needed to attain a medium-high grasp force, and that closed-loop control of a compliant assistive glove can successfully be implemented by means of a machine learning algorithm.