Building multi-modal sensory feedback pathways for SRL with the aim of sensory enhancement via BCI

Abstract

Recently, the Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRL) have emerged in the field of robotics for enhancing the user's ability without replacing natural limbs. Lots of researches have contributed to the mechanical design and control of SRL. However, building an artificial sensory nerve pathway of SRL has been largely ignored. In this paper, we built a multi-modal sensory feedback pathway for SRL. Three kinds of sensory pathway contained 1) fingertip pressure, 2) slippage and 3) proprioception information are built under the consideration of SRL platform through electrical stimulation. According to the experiment results of event-related potential (ERP) amplitude, establish the relationship between the physical parameters of the stimulus and the sensation. In addition, enhancement potentials of human sensation based on the brain-computer interface (BCI) is found in two aspects contained: 1) improvement of subjective perception resolution; 2) Shorten the time of sensory recognition. This paper can be used to objectively benchmark the human subjective and individualized sensation, and guide researchers to build the SRL sensory feedback pathways.