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Design and Evaluation of a Vibrotactile Sensory Feedback System for Prostheses
Loss of a limb can severely impact everyday way of life. Prosthetics provide a way to return functionality to the user and improve quality of life. However, most prosthetic systems currently available in the market lack sensory feedback making them comparatively more difficult to use resulting in prosthetic abandonment. Therefore, an important design consideration for prosthetics is sensory feedback to increase their functionality, usability, and ultimately their purpose for the user. Previous development of sensory feedback devices for prosthetics tended to focus on device design with less focus on intentional training methods to teach users to use the device. This thesis presents the design of a vibrotactile sensory feedback system (SFS) to complement a hand prosthesis. The system provides a sense of touch and force to the prosthesis. A sequential training method to teach users to interpret signals from the device was also developed. After undergoing training, users were tested with a force matching task under three conditions: visual feedback only, sensory feedback only, and with both sensory conditions. When sensory feedback was the only form of feedback given users performed comparably worse with less time spent in range and with greater error, but over the course of testing users improved with slightly more time spent within range and with decreased error, providing evidence that given training users can improve their interpretation of the SFS. This work provides a basis for developing more efficient sensory feedback systems to improve usability and retention of prostheses