Subhash Pratap

International Joint PhD Degree candidate between IIT Guwahati-GIFU University, Japan in Integrated Mechanical Engineering. Area of Research- Rehabilitation Robotics, Haptics, Machine Learning, Control Systems

The most challenging part of the neurorehabilitation is the functional recovery of the human hand. With the development of neurorehabilitation, physical rehabilitation strategies for the upper limbs include intensive intervention, task-oriented and bilateral training.

Despite significant progress over the last couple of years in the design and development of robotic exoskeletons for extreme upper limb rehabilitation, there remain several challenges to be addressed, particularly for retention of residual skills and providing ‘assistance-as-required’ leading to newer problems in feedback and control. This is particularly acute in the area of somatosensory feedback to the user. The work to be undertaken as part of PhD research is to explore cross-modal haptic feedback for a neuro-rehabilitation using tactile and visual modality through advanced machine learning techniques. Haptic information would be used along with electromyogram (EMG), signals from the muscles and motor imagery electroencephalogram (EEG), signals from the motor cortex for control of an extreme upper-limb exoskeleton.