Development of Tendon Driven Under-Actuated Mechanism Applied in an EMG Prosthetic Hand with Three Major Grasps for Daily Life

Abstract

This paper presents a lightweight (<250 g) and low-cost (<350 USD) biomimetic prosthetic hand with two actuators embedded in the palm. One of them is employed for flexion/extension of the five digits, and the other one is used for the adduction/abduction of thumb. Thus, the hand can achieve major grasping tasks that account for about 85% of activities in daily life. The unique transmission provides various advantages such as a compact structure, weight saving, and short driven distance. Furthermore, by using 3D printing technology, most parts of the prosthetic hand were made to be much lighter and have a humanlike appearance, compared with conventionally manufactured artificial hand. Finally, the performance and practical applicability of the proposed design was verified experimentally through both of a motion verification and an intuitive control test by a healthy subject and a transradial amputee.