Pei, DingyiOlikkal, Parthan SathishkumarAdali, TulayVinjamuri, Ramana2022-10-112022-10-112022-09-08D. Pei, P. Olikkal, T. Adali and R. Vinjamuri, "Dynamical Synergies in Multidigit Hand Prehension," 2022 44th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), 2022, pp. 3203-3206, doi: 10.1109/EMBC48229.2022.9871888.https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC48229.2022.9871888http://hdl.handle.net/11603/261492022 44th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC) Scottish Event Campus, Glasgow, UK, July 11-15, 2022Hand prehension requires a highly coordinated control of contact forces. The high dimensional sensorimotor system of the human hand although operates at ease, poses several challenges when replicated for prosthetic control. This study investigates how the dynamical synergies, coordinated spatial patterns of contact forces, contribute to the contact forces in a grasp, and whether the dynamical synergies could potentially serve as candidates for feedforward and feedback mechanisms. Ten right-handed subjects were recruited to grasp and hold mass-varied objects. The contact forces during this multidigit prehension were recorded using an instrumented grip glove. The dynamical synergies were derived using principal component analysis (PCA). The contact force patterns during the grasps were reconstructed using the first few synergies. The significance of the dynamical synergies and the current challenges and possible applications of the dynamical synergies were discussed along with the integration of the dynamical synergies into prosthetics and exoskeletons that can possibly enable near-natural control. This research presents dynamical synergies observed in contact forces during hand grasps. These dynamical synergies could help in improving feedforward force control and sensory feedback in hand prosthetics and exoskeletons.4 pagesen-US© 2022 IEEE.  Personal use of this material is permitted.  Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Text