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Hand synergies: Integration of robotics and neuroscience for understanding the control of biological and artificial hands.

Santello, Marco ; Bianchi, Matteo ; Gabiccini, Marco ; Ricciardi, Emiliano ; Salvietti, Gionata ; Prattichizzo, Domenico ; Ernst, Marc ; Moscatelli, Alessandro ; Jörntell, Henrik LU and Kappers, Astrid M L , et al. (2016) In Physics of Life Reviews p.1-23
Abstract
The term 'synergy' - from the Greek synergia - means 'working together'. The concept of multiple elements working together towards a common goal has been extensively used in neuroscience to develop theoretical frameworks, experimental approaches, and analytical techniques to understand neural control of movement, and for applications for neuro-rehabilitation. In the past decade, roboticists have successfully applied the framework of synergies to create novel design and control concepts for artificial hands, i.e., robotic hands and prostheses. At the same time, robotic research on the sensorimotor integration underlying the control and sensing of artificial hands has inspired new research approaches in neuroscience, and has provided useful... (More)
The term 'synergy' - from the Greek synergia - means 'working together'. The concept of multiple elements working together towards a common goal has been extensively used in neuroscience to develop theoretical frameworks, experimental approaches, and analytical techniques to understand neural control of movement, and for applications for neuro-rehabilitation. In the past decade, roboticists have successfully applied the framework of synergies to create novel design and control concepts for artificial hands, i.e., robotic hands and prostheses. At the same time, robotic research on the sensorimotor integration underlying the control and sensing of artificial hands has inspired new research approaches in neuroscience, and has provided useful instruments for novel experiments. The ambitious goal of integrating expertise and research approaches in robotics and neuroscience to study the properties and applications of the concept of synergies is generating a number of multidisciplinary cooperative projects, among which the recently finished 4-year European project "The Hand Embodied" (THE). This paper reviews the main insights provided by this framework. Specifically, we provide an overview of neuroscientific bases of hand synergies and introduce how robotics has leveraged the insights from neuroscience for innovative design in hardware and controllers for biomedical engineering applications, including myoelectric hand prostheses, devices for haptics research, and wearable sensing of human hand kinematics. The review also emphasizes how this multidisciplinary collaboration has generated new ways to conceptualize a synergy-based approach for robotics, and provides guidelines and principles for analyzing human behavior and synthesizing artificial robotic systems based on a theory of synergies. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Physics of Life Reviews
pages
23 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • pmid:26923030
  • scopus:84975775450
  • pmid:26923030
  • wos:000381544100001
ISSN
1571-0645
DOI
10.1016/j.plrev.2016.02.001
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
41b95431-35fd-4588-90e9-e509bb9c50d4 (old id 8857201)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26923030?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 08:54:13
date last changed
2022-04-08 00:28:34
@article{41b95431-35fd-4588-90e9-e509bb9c50d4,
  abstract     = {{The term 'synergy' - from the Greek synergia - means 'working together'. The concept of multiple elements working together towards a common goal has been extensively used in neuroscience to develop theoretical frameworks, experimental approaches, and analytical techniques to understand neural control of movement, and for applications for neuro-rehabilitation. In the past decade, roboticists have successfully applied the framework of synergies to create novel design and control concepts for artificial hands, i.e., robotic hands and prostheses. At the same time, robotic research on the sensorimotor integration underlying the control and sensing of artificial hands has inspired new research approaches in neuroscience, and has provided useful instruments for novel experiments. The ambitious goal of integrating expertise and research approaches in robotics and neuroscience to study the properties and applications of the concept of synergies is generating a number of multidisciplinary cooperative projects, among which the recently finished 4-year European project "The Hand Embodied" (THE). This paper reviews the main insights provided by this framework. Specifically, we provide an overview of neuroscientific bases of hand synergies and introduce how robotics has leveraged the insights from neuroscience for innovative design in hardware and controllers for biomedical engineering applications, including myoelectric hand prostheses, devices for haptics research, and wearable sensing of human hand kinematics. The review also emphasizes how this multidisciplinary collaboration has generated new ways to conceptualize a synergy-based approach for robotics, and provides guidelines and principles for analyzing human behavior and synthesizing artificial robotic systems based on a theory of synergies.}},
  author       = {{Santello, Marco and Bianchi, Matteo and Gabiccini, Marco and Ricciardi, Emiliano and Salvietti, Gionata and Prattichizzo, Domenico and Ernst, Marc and Moscatelli, Alessandro and Jörntell, Henrik and Kappers, Astrid M L and Kyriakopoulos, Kostas and Albu-Schäffer, Alin and Castellini, Claudio and Bicchi, Antonio}},
  issn         = {{1571-0645}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  pages        = {{1--23}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Physics of Life Reviews}},
  title        = {{Hand synergies: Integration of robotics and neuroscience for understanding the control of biological and artificial hands.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.plrev.2016.02.001}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.plrev.2016.02.001}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}