Peripheral Nervous System-Machine Interfaces (PNS-MI)

There is an ever-increasing interest in emergent approaches for extracting signatures of neuromuscular volition for high-fidelity operation of prosthetic devices and assistive technologies. In a recent position paper [Castellini 2015], the Peripheral Nervous System-Machine Interface (PNS-MI) workgroup has taken on focal topics driving the field of prosthetic detection and control: Limitations of surface electromyography (sEMG), Opportunities for improvement of sEMG, Alternative prosthetic sensing technologies, and Shared control strategies. One particularly critical barrier to development is the need for greater integration of the clinician and the patient into the work of laboratory-based developers: technology that isn’t conceived, designed, fitted, and instructed to the patients, stands a high risk of disuse and abandonment. In particular, areas of need include: provision of real-time feedback, improved reliability in the face of inherently unstable control signals, expansion of the number of controllable degrees of freedom, and increased sense of embodiment.
This Research Topic welcomes all types of articles related to novel technologies for control of prosthetic or assistive devices, and places high priority on those articles addressing the areas of need as described above. All types of articles are welcome among those permitted in the Frontiers in Neurorobotics platform.