Abstract
The strict development processes of commercial upper-limb prostheses and the complexity of research projects required for their development makes them expensive for end users, both in terms of acquisition and maintenance. Moreover, many of them possess complex ways to operate and interact with the subjects, influencing patients to not favor these devices and shed them from their activities of daily living. The advent of 3D printers allows for distributed open-source research projects that follow new design principles; these consider simplicity without neglecting performance in terms of grasping capabilities, power consumption and controllability. In this work, a simple, yet functional design based on 3D printing is proposed, with the aim to reduce costs and manufacturing time. The operation process consists in interpreting the user intent with electromyography electrodes, while providing visual feedback through a μLCD screen. Its modular, parametric and self-contained design is intended to aid people with different transradial amputation levels, despite of the socket's constitution. This approach allows for easy updates of the system and demands a low cognitive effort from the user, satisfying a trade-off between functionality and low cost. It also grants an easy customization of the amount and selection of available actions, as well as the sensors used for gathering the user intent, permitting alterations to fit the patients' unique needs. Furthermore, experimental results showed an apt mechanical performance when interacting with everyday life objects, in addition to a highly accurate and responsive controller; this also applies for the user-prosthesis interface.
Highlights
The last World Report on disabilities shows that there are at least 30 million people with amputations residing in developing countries and most of them do not have possibilities to acquire prosthetic care, neither can they afford leading commercial assistive technology with pricing around $1000, such as upper-limb prosthetic devices [1]–[4]
Several research laboratories focus on improving dexterity and biomimetics of prosthetic hands, as well as implementing expensive and intrusive ways to gather the user intent [5]–[9], while, sometimes, neglecting other vital aspects of the prosthetic device, like aesthetics, controllability
Because of the limitations of conventional body-powered prostheses, like steel hooks, and the elevated cost, weight and difficulties to repair commercial myoelectric prosthetic devices [12]–[14], many open-source projects based on 3D printing technologies have been released [14]–[17], whose target is a lightweight and affordable upper-limb prosthetic device
Summary
The last World Report on disabilities shows that there are at least 30 million people with amputations residing in developing countries and most of them do not have possibilities to acquire prosthetic care, neither can they afford leading commercial assistive technology with pricing around $1000, such as upper-limb prosthetic devices [1]–[4].
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