A Low-Cost 3D Printed Prosthetic Hand with a Sensory Feedback Interface

Abstract

The usage of a prosthesis by children who lack an upper limb, is a promising way to improve the quality of life. However, rejection rate amongst users of prosthetic devices is high, besides other causes, due to high cost, high weight, lack of social acceptance and lack of sensory feedback. The growing availability and improvements of 3D printers offer a solution to some of these issues and many designs were created, but to the best of our knowledge without addressing the issue of sensory feedback. In this paper we present a low-cost, 3D printed, motorized prosthetic hand design with a sensory feedback interface based on a modality-matched approach. The design offers an end-to-end solution and was validated using an adapter for able-bodied users and an interface used to log the data. A relation between applied force and feedback signal was verified and was used to optimize and calibrate the sensors and feedback parameters. Moreover, analyzing the feedback when pressing a hard object compared to a soft object, yielded a significant difference in outcome. The entire design and interface are shared online freely and offer a platform for experiments on sensory feedback for prosthetic hands. The promising results show that the low-cost hand and sensory feedback interface performs as expected and based on previous research could potentially improve the functionality of the prosthesis and thereby improve the quality of life of children with an upper limb deficiency.