The supporting system for disabled person with the artificial hand controlled by muscle sensor

Abstract

The artificial hand is necessary and hopeful item for supporting disabled person who losts hand due to contingent accident in the industrial fields or military. However, most of supporting product like an artificial hand is very expensive product that is not easily accessible as well as it is hard for a person to familiar with although it support powerful functionality. In the other side, cheap model of such items does not support detailed motion of hand. It is simply an alternative to mimic the shape of hand. In fact, a number of disabled people who lose their hands may not want an artificial hands that completely replace ones hands. They merely want an artificial hands that support simple movement in the daily life. The financial part is also important factor that can not be excluded from consideration. Causing above reasons, the artificial hand supporting basic motion frequently used in the daily life with low cost is strongly required. In this paper, we propose the artificial hand with low cost and controlled by muscle movement which captured by muscle sensor. Considering the cost, we design the frame of hand with 3D printing technology. With muscle sensor, it is possible to control the fingers only by muscular movement of the forearm, thereby improving the convenience of the control. In addition, we suggest mobile application by touch interfacing in the mobile device, and also proposed the training guide web site. The proposed mobile application is used for inspection method of functional normalcy of the artificial hands. The web site is used to support confirming movement of muscle sensor and training for use of muscle control because most of people are not likely to have used muscles for a long time and may not be familiar with muscle control for the proposed artificial hands. Through simulations, we confirm that the proposed artificial hand supports several motion of hand which are frequently used in the daily life, and the suggested system is enough to support disabled person.