Closed-Loop Platform for Human Movement Augmentation with Electrotactile Feedback

Abstract

This work aims to fulfil and test Human Move-ment Augmentation with a closed-loop approach and a novel electrotactile feedback strategy. The user controls a Supernu-merary Robotic Arm by moving their foot, while receiving on their thigh electrotactile feedback conveying information on the robot's position. The feedback is provided through a matrix of 60 electrodes by stimulating different pads with different fre-quencies to represent 3D coordinates. A preliminary experiment was conducted with eight participants evenly distributed in Test and Control groups, who performed the task with and without electrotactile stimulation, respectively. After a learning phase, they were required to move the robot on targets displayed through augmented reality, without visual feedback of the robot. The Test group could rely on the electrotactile feedback and achieved fairly better performance than the Control group, with a success rate of 11±10% compared to the 8±5% of the Control group.