Abstract
This work presents the design of a low-cost prosthetic device for shoulder disarticulation. A proper design of the mechanisms has been addressed to obtain a prototype that presents 7 degrees of freedom. Shoulder movement is achieved by means of a spherical parallel manipulator, elbow movement is performed by a six-bar mechanism, and the wrist movement is implemented by a spherical parallel manipulator. A set of dynamic simulations was performed in order to assess the functionality of the design. The prototype was built using 3D printing techniques and implementing low-cost actuators. An experimental evaluation was carried out to characterize this device. The result of this work is a prototype that weighs 1350 g that is able to perform movements related to activities of daily living.
Highlights
One of the main issues related to the design of prosthetic devices is to mimic as close as possible the human motion
The more proximal the amputation, the higher is the rate of abandonment of prosthetic arms [3]; this is mainly due to a low functionality and comfort
Considering the previously outlined, in this work, we propose a light and easy-to-afford upper limb prosthesis for people with shoulder disarticulation that allows mimicking the movement of an arm through a set of prescribed trajectories
Summary
One of the main issues related to the design of prosthetic devices is to mimic as close as possible the human motion. The low functionality of the device causes overuse syndrome in people with upper limb deficiency [2]. The more proximal the amputation, the higher is the rate of abandonment of prosthetic arms [3]; this is mainly due to a low functionality and comfort. Shoulder disarticulation shows the lowest rate of incidence, so there is low incentive to develop solutions for people with this disability, and few prosthetic devices have been designed [4]. The amputation of the shoulder involves the necessity of more DOFs in the prosthetic device, and the complexity of the system increases
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