Cost effective electro-resistive band based myo activated prosthetic upper limb for amputees in the developing world

In several developing areas of the world, many amputees have no access to any assistive devices for a normal living. The complexity and huge cost of current prosthetics in the market limit the reach and its applications to these underserved people. The goal of this work is to design a low-cost and efficient myo activated prosthetic upper limb for persons with disabilities who are living in resource-limited areas. The design of the hand is composed of two fingers which are made up of low-cost material and using rapid prototyping methods. The surface EMG signals are captured through wearable electro-resistive bands (ERBs) connected to the amputee's residual arm. Using an Arduino microcontroller, the signals are processed to drive a DC motor for open and close of hand. The design aims to achieve reduced power, lower weight, lower maintenance cost and ease of assembly

Characterization of coated piezo-resistive fabric for respiration sensing

Electro-resistive band (ERB) or conductive elastomer can be also used as non-invasive bio-potential sensors. This stretchable conductive material gained acceptance in health monitoring systems due to their low cost, low power consumption and high flexibility. ERBs can be polarized with a current source to generate a voltage signal directly proportional to the change of length. However, the sensors require close contact with the patient’s skin to monitor bio-mechanical movements adequately. Direct contact with human skin causes inconsistent current leakage and result in low SNR. Isolating the ERB is important to avoid current leakage, provide protection by overstretching and easiness of wearing. However, not all stretchable material suitable to use as ERB substrate. In this work, we have compared two different conductive elastomers (rubber and fabric) stretched using a breathing simulator machine to compare the material performance. We have coated the ERBs with 3 different coating materials: Pinkysil, Transil and silicone tape, as well as raw bands. We have processed and analyzed all the collected signals using a wide range of measurements and calculations such as linearity, baseline change, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), correlation coefficient and phase difference. We have discovered from the final results that the silicone tape serves as a good isolator material and shows reliable and consistent results. The conductive rubber also shows less noise and distortion across stretching in shorter stretch applications compared to the conductive fabric