Augmenting Human Manipulation Abilities with Supernumerary Robotic Limbs

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction

   • Irfan Hussain, Domenico Prattichizzo

   Pages 1-7

3. Enhancing Human Hand Manipulation Abilities Through Supernumerary Robotic Fingers

   • Irfan Hussain, Domenico Prattichizzo

   Pages 9-24

4. Compensating Hand Function in Chronic Stroke Patients Through the Supernumerary Robotic Finger

   • Irfan Hussain, Domenico Prattichizzo

   Pages 25-38

5. Design and Development of Soft Supernumerary Robotic Fingers for Grasp Compensation in Chronic Stroke Patients

   • Irfan Hussain, Domenico Prattichizzo

   Pages 39-73

6. Wearable Sensory Motor Interfaces for Supernumerary Robotic Fingers

   • Irfan Hussain, Domenico Prattichizzo

   Pages 75-92

7. Wearable EMG Interfaces for Motion Control of Supernumerary Robotic Fingers

   • Irfan Hussain, Domenico Prattichizzo

   Pages 93-119

8. From Grasp Compensation Towards Hemiparetic Upper Limb Rehabilitation

   • Irfan Hussain, Domenico Prattichizzo

   Pages 121-130

9. Conclusions and Future Work

   • Irfan Hussain, Domenico Prattichizzo

   Pages 131-136

10. Back Matter

    Pages 137-145

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This book offers a timely report on an emerging topic in the field of wearable assistive technology: the design and development of robotic extra fingers. After a concise review of the state of the art and a description of earlier prototypes, it discusses the authors’ efforts to address issues such as portability and wearability of the devices, including strategies to reduce fatigue and to integrate the motion of the extra fingers with that of the human hand. The book also explores optimized control algorithms and the design of wearable sensorimotor interfaces, and presents a set of tests carried out on healthy subjects and chronic stroke patients. Merging concepts from robotics, biomechanics, human factors and control theory and offering an overview of supernumerary robotic fingers, including the challenges, this book will inspire researchers involved in the development of wearable robotic devices and interfaces based on the principles of wearability, safety, ergonomics and user comfort.  

• Robotic Extra Finger
• Robotic Grasping
• Wearable Haptic Interfaces
• Wearable Sensory Interface
• Wearable Haptic Ring
• Vibrotactile Haptic Feedback
• EMG –Based Interface
• Human Hand Motion
• Interfacing Extra Robotic Fingers
• Soft Sixth Finger
• Soft Robotic Finger
• Wearable Assistive Technology
• Human Augmentation
• Wearable Robotics

• Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khalifa University Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS), Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

  Irfan Hussain

• Department of Information Engineering, Università degli Studi di Siena, Siena, Italy

  Domenico Prattichizzo

​Dr. Hussain is an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering department at Khalifa University (KU), Abu Dhabi, UAE. He received his PhD degree in robotics from University of Siena, Italy. His research interests include Supernumerary (Extra) Robotic limbs, Medical Robotics, SoftRobotic hands, Complaint Manipulators, Exoskeletons and prosthesis.


Prof. Prattichizzo is a professor of robotics at the University of Siena, Siena, Italy, and since 2009 he is a Scientific Consultant at Istituto Italiano di Tecnoloogia, Genova, Italy. In 1994, he was a Visiting Scientist at the MIT AI Lab. He received the Ph.D. degree in robotics and automation from the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, in 1995. His research interests are in Supernumerary (Extra) Robotic limbs, haptics, grasping, visual servoing, mobile robotics and geometric control.

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