Adapting to progressive paralysis: A tongue-brain hybrid robot interface
for individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Abstract
Individuals suffering from progressive neuromuscular diseases gradually
lose all muscle control and therefore are forced to repeatedly adapt to
new control interface technologies to maintain some level of
independence. Accordingly, the ideal interface technology should adapt
to the progression of paralysis. We propose an adaptive tongue-brain
hybrid interface framework for the three-dimensional control of a
robotic arm. The interface was tested with able-bodied individuals and
individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The experiments
demonstrated the importance of flexible frameworks for cooperation
between control modalities as this allows a critical optimization of the
control performance relative to the disease stage. The hybrid framework
allowed a 4-34% stepwise decrease in performance rather than a 200%
decrease when moving directly from a tongue to a brain control
interface. This hybrid framework is the first step towards a new concept
of assistive robotic control with a higher focus on adapting to the
functionality of disabled individuals.