PolyU and BrainCo collaborate to empower amputees through smart prosthetics

Prof. ZHENG Yongping, Director of Research Institute for Smart Ageing (RISA) and Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has recently entered into a deep collaboration with BrainCo to promote the deployment and application of advanced smart prosthetics.

According to the latest CE policy report, the government will support via ITF funding, and the initiative aims to provide amputee subjects in Hong Kong with free smart prosthetic fitting services.  The PolyU team will oversee the entire process in collaboration with BrainCo, from initial assessment and installation to precise calibration, while providing two years of complementary maintenance and repair.  To make the service more sustainable and accessible, the team also aims to train professional prosthetists and orthotists, with plans to extend this training to the serving clinicians in department of prosthetics and orthotics in hospitals of Hospital Authority.  This will help enhance the industry’s capacity in delivering high-end prosthetics.

Prof. Zheng explained that the core technological breakthrough lies in the sophisticated interpretation of electromyography (EMG) signals.  When a user intends to move, brain signals are transmitted to the muscles of the residual limb, inducing subtle EMG activity.  While lower-limb prosthetics are already relatively technologically mature, the innovation of this smart hand prosthetic is its ability to achieve “individual finger control”.  Equipped with eight sets of built-in electrodes, it precisely captures micro-currents generated by muscles during contraction on the skin’s surface and processes them in real time, enabling the prosthesis to perform delicate tasks, such as drawing, playing the piano, or gripping objects of various shapes.  Prof. Zheng added that despite the impressive technology, its optimal performance still relies on long-term professional calibration and consistent user training, and results may vary among individuals.

Prof. Zheng’s team in PolyU has been researching to convert the muscle architectural changes during contraction, captured by wearable ultrasound imaging module, into a new control signal, named as sonomyography (SMG), to control prosthesis more intuitively.  Their prototype prosthesis, ProRuka, fitting into an amputee subjects’ arm has earlier won Gold Medal in the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva in 2024.(https://www.polyu.edu.hk/pair/publications/issue-11/ra04---risa-develops-proruka_a-novel-prosthetic-hand-controlled-by-wireless-sonomyography/?sc_lang=en)

 

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