INPUT will strive to make the control of complex upper limb prostheses simple, natural and to be used on a daily basis by amputees effortlessly after donning -"don and play". Currently, the most advanced routine prosthetic control on the market is more than 4 decades old, outdated and constitutes the bottle neck to introducing highly dexterous prostheses. The project builds on achievements reached in the EU FP7 IAPP projects AMYO (Grant No. 251555, 2011-2014) and MYOSENS (Grant No. 286208, 2012-2015), which were targeting improved signal acquisition and signal processing for advanced upper limb prosthetic control. The projects were very successful and received high recognitions national and international recognitions. In INPUT, the main goal will be to transfer the obtained results from laboratory settings further towards a clinically and commercially viable medical product. The enabling concepts on which INPUT builds upon are: - Reliable, easy to apply, cost-effective signal acquisition - Reliable, powerful real-time signal processing - Quantifying true patient benefit - Optimized end-user training - Iterative clinical tests throughout the entire project In order to keep a realistic focus, the project will rely on well-known principles of advanced prosthesis control. Existing upper limb prosthetic hardware will be reused to minimize development time and costs. Improved electronics, algorithms and training will be the main innovations. INPUT will build on frequent end-user testing with amputees throughout the entire project. These will ensure targeted prototype development and market viability for advancing the technology from laboratory conditions to a high technology readiness level (TRL) of 8. The project relies on the cooperation between academic research, industry and clinical partners - thus representing the entire value chain of cutting edge upper limb prosthetics. This will ensure the development of stable, wearable and practical prototypes.

In healthcare, assistive health technology plays a pivotal role as a catalyst for positive transformation. These innovative solutions are crafted to improve health outcomes and treatment regimens and address the challenges of various diseases. Their overarching mission is to enhance the overall quality of life while ensuring equal access to and participation in daily activities for everyone, encompassing patients with various health conditions, the expanding elderly population, and even individuals navigating an increasingly automated and demanding work environment. Outstanding instances of assistive health technology include home-based rehabilitation robotics that target sensorimotor deficits, electric wheelchairs providing individuals with independent mobility, telehealth applications facilitating cardiovascular monitoring, and powered prostheses that reinstate mobility and instil confidence in everyday activities. Despite recent strides in hardware, sensing, control systems and actuation technologies, notable limitations persist. These systems often encounter challenges when operating beyond their specifically tailored environments, necessitating manual adjustments and limiting safety and reliability in dynamic scenarios. We aim to push assistive health technology towards intelligent, safe, and reliable assistance that mirrors human interaction. This entails harnessing the latest ML advancements for real-world human-engineering system interactions. We are committed to cultivating a new generation of multidisciplinary doctoral candidates to realise this vision. Through close collaboration with industry partners, and assistive health technology developers, these candidates will gain knowledge from diverse disciplines, encompassing sensing, control, and safety considerations. The ultimate outcome will be assistive health technologies that elevate health diagnoses, treatments, and the overall quality of life, ultimately fostering equity in daily activities.

Building from the strong drivers of hand amputee needs, currently unmet by the existing solutions in the market, the central goal of OneHAND project is to accelerate the market introduction of a disruptive user centred approach to prosthetic hand use – OneHAND solution. The oneHAND solution aims at maximizing user comfort, optimize price-point and improve overall experience to minimize prosthesis abandon altogether. It comprises a light, fast, modular and scalable prosthesis and a virtual reality training platform in a unique delivery model. The overall aim of OneHAND project is to mature, demonstrate and finalize the OneHand solution, while building the foundation to disrupt the value chain. OneHAND brings together a consortium of three SMEs (Hy5, TSC, PROTH) and the international amputee association (IC2A) – in unison representing a technical side specialized in hand prosthesis and VR training platform development, the business and societal sides with unique knowledge on users, prosthetists and clinics requirements and on routes to market for innovative solutions. The consortium expects a successful market introduction of the OneHAND solution within the next 3 years, tapping into a large business opportunity, and sustaining a very fast-paced growth for the industrial partners.

The aim of the RETRAINER proposal is to tune and validate advanced, robot-based technologies to facilitate recovery of arm and hand function in stroke survivors and to verify extensively the use of the system by end-users. RETRAINER will allow the users to use their own arm and hand as much and as soon as possible after the trauma so to achieve the best outcomes in rehabilitation. A continuous iterative process between the technology development and the testing feedback will drive the whole project. RETRAINER will implement a full technology transfer from the results of a previous FP7 project, MUNDUS, aimed at setting up a similar assistive device for severely disabled people in daily life activities. RETRAINER will make available two systems that could be used either combined or stand-alone. RETRAINER S1 will provide the end-user with a robot that does not completely take over the user’s tasks and substitute the functionality of the body, but specifically supports the user only whenever he/she really needs support. Residual functionality is trained and improved on rather than replaced by the robotic device. Arm movements will be supported by the combined action of a passive exoskeleton for weight relief and Neuromuscular Electrical stimulation (NMES) delivered to several arm muscles in a controlled manner. RETRAINER S2 will exploit a wearable NMES system with multiple arrays of electrodes for hand rehabilitation facilitating the grasping function. Both systems will benefit from use of interactive objects, i.e. daily-life objects able to supply information about themselves to drive usage. Within RETRAINER the same principle and module will be exploited to drive rehabilitation exercises and to monitor daily life. The systems will undergo a thorough randomized control clinical trial with end users to assess their efficacy in rehabilitation. Certification and qualification of the system will be pursued, given the adequate quality of experimental results.