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Bionic Hand Motion Control Method Based on Imitation of Human Hand Movements and Reinforcement Learning

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Abstract

Bionic hands are promising devices for assisting individuals with hand disabilities in rehabilitation robotics. Controlled primarily by bioelectrical signals such as myoelectricity and EEG, these hands can compensate for lost hand functions. However, developing model-based controllers for bionic hands is challenging and time-consuming due to varying control parameters and unknown application environments. To address these challenges, we propose a model-free approach using reinforcement learning (RL) for designing bionic hand controllers. Our method involves mimicking real human hand motion with the bionic hand and employing a human hand motion decomposition technique to learn complex motions from simpler ones. This approach significantly reduces the training time required. By utilizing real human hand motion data, we design a multidimensional sampling proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm that enables efficient motion control of the bionic hand. To validate the effectiveness of our approach, we compare it against advanced baseline methods. The results demonstrate the quick learning capabilities and high control success rate of our method.

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Data Availability

The raw/processed data required to reproduce these findings cannot be shared at this time as the data also form part of an ongoing study.

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Funding

This work was supported by Su Yan Yuan (“Development and industrialization of intelligent multi-degree-of-freedom arm based on perceptual fusion and collaborative control" (Su Yan Yuan [2019] No. 107)) and Shanghai DianJi University(“Research on flexible joint and adaptive control technology for new upper limb prosthesis" (scientific research start-up fund project of Shanghai DianJi University) and “Research on robot intelligent grasping technology based on visual touch fusion in unstructured environment" (Science and technology [2020] No. 79 of Shanghai DianJi University)).

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Author notes

  1. Baojiang Li, Xichao Wang, Haiyan Wang, and Yuting Guo have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The School of Electrical Engineering, Shanghai DianJi University, Shanghai, 201306, China

    Jibo Bai, Baojiang Li, Xichao Wang, Haiyan Wang & Yuting Guo

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  1. Jibo Bai
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by JB, YG, HW and BL. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JB and all the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Baojiang Li.

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Conflict of Interest

Financial interests: The authors Jibo Bai, Haiyan Wang and Yutin Guo declare they have no financial interests. The author Baojiang Li received research funding from Su Yan Yuan and Shanghai DianJi University.

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The study did not address ethical issues.

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Informed consent was obtained from all the individual participants included in the study.

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Bai, J., Li, B., Wang, X. et al. Bionic Hand Motion Control Method Based on Imitation of Human Hand Movements and Reinforcement Learning. J Bionic Eng 21, 764–777 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-023-00472-5

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