Cost-Effective Prosthetic Hand for Amputees: Challenges and Practical Implementation

According to statistics, approximately 160,000 people in Malaysia, out of the current population of 32 million, need prosthetic or orthotic equipment. For individuals who have experienced upper extremity amputations, significant challenges are posed by the loss of functionality and the desire for a cosmetically appealing solution. To address this issue, a cost-effective prosthetic hand was proposed and developed. An overview of existing prosthetic hands is also offered, with an emphasis on cost-effectiveness, challenges, strengths, and weaknesses. The developed prosthetic hand incorporates a practical and underactuated finger mechanism. It is equipped with controllers based on EMG sensors to ensure that optimal responses are achieved during the grasping and releasing of objects. A suitable motor was carefully chosen to facilitate effective grasping and ungrasping activities. The proposed design was realized using SolidWorks and a 3D Printer. The capabilities of the prosthetic hand were demonstrated through a series of tests involving various objects, including pliers, a screwdriver, and a phone. The results indicate that objects of different sizes and shapes can be effectively grasped and ungrasped by the prosthetic hand. The unique bending angles in each finger result from the way tendons are connected via flexible cords and fishing lines to the servo motor. This design allows for a dynamic response based on the user's muscle flex and strength. The affordability of this cost-effective prosthetic hand demonstrates its potential as a practical and viable solution for amputees aiming to restore their grasping functionalities

Cost-Effective Prosthetic Hand for Amputees: Challenges and Practical Implementation

According to statistics, approximately 160,000 people in Malaysia, out of the current population of 32 million, need prosthetic or orthotic equipment. For individuals who have experienced upper extremity amputations, significant challenges are posed by the loss of functionality and the desire for a cosmetically appealing solution. To address this issue, a cost-effective prosthetic hand was proposed and developed. An overview of existing prosthetic hands is also offered, with an emphasis on cost-effectiveness, challenges, strengths, and weaknesses. The developed prosthetic hand incorporates a practical and underactuated finger mechanism. It is equipped with controllers based on EMG sensors to ensure that optimal responses are achieved during the grasping and releasing of objects. A suitable motor was carefully chosen to facilitate effective grasping and ungrasping activities. The proposed design was realized using SolidWorks and a 3D Printer. The capabilities of the prosthetic hand were demonstrated through a series of tests involving various objects, including pliers, a screwdriver, and a phone. The results indicate that objects of different sizes and shapes can be effectively grasped and ungrasped by the prosthetic hand. The unique bending angles in each finger result from the way tendons are connected via flexible cords and fishing lines to the servo motor. This design allows for a dynamic response based on the user's muscle flex and strength. The affordability of this cost-effective prosthetic hand demonstrates its potential as a practical and viable solution for amputees aiming to restore their grasping functionalities

Anthropomorphically Inspired Design of a Tendon-Driven Robotic Prosthesis for Hand Impairments

This thesis presents the design of a robotic prosthesis, which mimics the morphology of a human hand. The primary goal of this work is to develop a systematic methodology that allows a custom-build of the prosthesis to match the specific requirements of a person with hand impairments. Two principal research questions are addressed toward this goal: 1) How do we cater to the large variation in the distribution of overall hand-sizes in the human population? 2) How closely do we mimic the complex morphological aspects of a biological hand in order to maximize the anthropomorphism (human-like appearance) of the robotic hand, while still maintaining a customizable and manageable design? This design approach attempts to replicate the crucial morphological aspects in the artificial hand (the kinematic structure of the hand skeleton, the shape and aspect ratios of various bone-segments, and ranges of motion). The hand design is partitioned into two parts: 1) A stiff skeleton structure, comprising parametrically synthesized segments that are simplified counterparts of nineteen bone-segments—five metacarpals, five proximal phalanges, four middle phalanges, and five distal phalanges—of the natural hand-skeleton and simplified mechanical substitutes of the remaining eight carpal bones. 2) A soft skin-like structure that encompasses the artificial skeleton to match the cosmetics and compliant features of the natural hand. A parameterized CAD model representation of each synthesized segment is developed by using the feature of design-tables in SolidWorks, which allows easy customization with respect to each person. Average hand measurements available in the literature are used to guide the dimensioning of parameters of each synthesized segment. Tendon-driven actuation of the fingers allows the servo actuators to be mounted remotely, thereby enabling a sleek finger design. A prototype of the robotic hand is constructed by 3D-printing all the parts using an Object 30 Prime 3D printer. Results reported from physical validation experiments of the robotic hand demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed design approach

Sensors for Robotic Hands: A Survey of State of the Art

Recent decades have seen significant progress in the field of artificial hands. Most of the surveys, which try to capture the latest developments in this field, focused on actuation and control systems of these devices. In this paper, our goal is to provide a comprehensive survey of the sensors for artificial hands. In order to present the evolution of the field, we cover five year periods starting at the turn of the millennium. At each period, we present the robot hands with a focus on their sensor systems dividing them into categories, such as prosthetics, research devices, and industrial end-effectors.We also cover the sensors developed for robot hand usage in each era. Finally, the period between 2010 and 2015 introduces the reader to the state of the art and also hints to the future directions in the sensor development for artificial hands

An open platform for the design of social robot embodiments for face- to-face communication

The role of the physical embodiment of a social robot is of key importance during the interaction with humans. If we want to study the interactions we need to be able to change the robot’s embodiment to the nature of the experiment. Nowadays, researchers build one-off robots from scratch or choose to use a commercially available platform. This is justified by the time and budget constraints and the lack of design tools for social robots. In this work, we introduce an affordable open source platform to accelerate the design and production of novel social robot embodiments, with a focus on face-to-face communication. We describe an experiment where Industrial Design students created physical embodiments for 10 new social robots using our platform, detailing the design methodology followed during the different steps of the process. The paper gives an overview of the platform modules used by each of the robots, the skinning techniques employed, as well as the perceived usability of the platform. In summary, we show that our platform (1) enables non-experts to design new social robot embodiments, (2) allows a wide variety of different robots to be built with the same building blocks, and (3) affords itself to being adapted and extended

3D printed neuromorphic sensing systems

Thanks to the high energy efficiency, neuromorphic devices are spotlighted recently by mimicking the calculation principle of the human brain through the parallel computation and the memory function. Various bio-inspired \u27in-memory computing\u27 (IMC) devices were developed during the past decades, such as synaptic transistors for artificial synapses. By integrating with specific sensors, neuromorphic sensing systems are achievable with the bio-inspired signal perception function. A signal perception process is possible by a combination of stimuli sensing, signal conversion/transmission, and signal processing. However, most neuromorphic sensing systems were demonstrated without signal conversion/transmission functions. Therefore, those cannot fully mimic the function provides by the sensory neuron in the biological system. This thesis aims to design a neuromorphic sensing system with a complete function as biological sensory neurons. To reach such a target, 3D printed sensors, electrical oscillators, and synaptic transistors were developed as functions of artificial receptors, artificial neurons, and artificial synapses, respectively. Moreover, since the 3D printing technology has demonstrated a facile process due to fast prototyping, the proposed 3D neuromorphic sensing system was designed as a 3D integrated structure and fabricated by 3D printing technologies. A novel multi-axis robot 3D printing system was also utilized to increase the fabrication efficiency with the capability of printing on vertical and tilted surfaces seamlessly. Furthermore, the developed 3D neuromorphic system was easily adapted to the application of tactile sensing. A portable neuromorphic system was integrated with a tactile sensing system for the intelligent tactile sensing application of the humanoid robot. Finally, the bio-inspired reflex arc for the unconscious response was also demonstrated by training the neuromorphic tactile sensing system

Design, implementation, and evaluation of a variable stiffness transradial hand prosthesis

We present the design, implementation, and experimental evaluation of a low-cost, customizable, easy-to-use transradial hand prosthesis capable of adapting its compliance. Variable stiffness actuation (VSA) of the prosthesis is based on antagonistically arranged tendons coupled to nonlinear springs driven through a Bowden cable based power transmission. Bowden cable based antagonistic VSA can, not only regulate the stiffness and the position of the prosthetic hand but also enables a light-weight and low-cost design, by the opportunistic placement of motors, batteries, and controllers on any convenient location on the human body, while nonlinear springs are conveniently integrated inside the forearm. The transradial hand prosthesis also features tendon driven underactuated compliant fingers that allow natural adaption of the hand shape to wrap around a wide variety of object geometries, while the modulation of the stiffness of their drive tendons enables the prosthesis to perform various tasks with high dexterity. The compliant fingers of the prosthesis add inherent robustness and flexibility, even under impacts. The control of the variable stiffness transradial hand prosthesis is achieved by an sEMG based natural human-machine interface