Design Of Prosthetic Hand Research Articles

Design and Implementation of an Upper Limb Prosthetic Hand Using a Pressure Sensor

Design and Implementation of an Upper Limb Prosthetic Hand Using a Pressure Sensor

The Latest Research Progress on Bionic Artificial Hands: A Systematic Review.

Bionic prosthetic hands hold the potential to replicate the functionality of human hands. The use of bionic limbs can assist amputees in performing everyday activities. This article systematically reviews the research progress on bionic prostheses, with a focus on control mechanisms, sensory feedback integration, and mechanical design innovations. It emphasizes the use of bioelectrical signals, such as electromyography (EMG), for prosthetic control and discusses the application of machine learning algorithms to enhance the accuracy of gesture recognition. Additionally, the paper explores advancements in sensory feedback technologies, including tactile, visual, and auditory modalities, which enhance user interaction by providing essential environmental feedback. The mechanical design of prosthetic hands is also examined, with particular attention to achieving a balance between dexterity, weight, and durability. Our contribution consists of compiling current research trends and identifying key areas for future development, including the enhancement of control system integration and improving the aesthetic and functional resemblance of prostheses to natural limbs. This work aims to inform and inspire ongoing research that seeks to refine the utility and accessibility of prosthetic hands for amputees, emphasizing user-centric innovations.

Simulation and experimental study on rope driven artificial hand and driven motor.

Prosthetic hands have the potential to replace human hands. Using prosthetic hands can help patients with hand loss to complete the necessary daily living actions. This paper studies the design of a bionic, compact, low-cost, and lightweight 3D printing humanoid hand. The five fingers are underactuated, with a total of 9 degrees of freedom. In the design of an underactuated hand, it is a basic element composed of an actuator, spring, rope, and guide system. A single actuator is providing power for five fingers. And the dynamic simulation is carried out to calculate the motion trajectory effect. In this paper, the driving structure of the ultrasonic motor was designed, and the structural size of the ultrasonic motor vibrator was determined by modal and transient simulation analysis, which replace the traditional brake, realize the lightweight design of prosthetic hand, improve the motion accuracy and optimize the driving performance of prosthetic hand. By replacing traditional actuators with new types of actuators, lightweight design of prosthetic hands can be achieved, improving motion accuracy and optimizing the driving performance of prosthetic hands.

Innovative Prosthetic Hand Design: Integrating EMG Sensors and 3D Printing for Enhanced Usability

The development of affordable and user-friendly prosthetic hands presents a significant challenge within rehabilitation engineering, as traditional prosthetics often lack intuitive control and adaptability, adversely affecting user experience and daily functionality. This study proposes an innovative prosthetic hand that leverages advanced sensor technologies and 3D printing techniques to enhance usability and performance. Historically, prosthetic hands have been hindered by mechanical systems that do not facilitate effective user interaction, leading to frustration and limited functionality. By integrating electromyography (EMG) sensors, this research aims to bridge the gap between user needs and technological capabilities, enabling more responsive control based on natural muscle signals. The primary objectives include the utilization of advanced EMG sensors for intuitive control, the integration of real-time feedback mechanisms to enhance user interaction, and the design of a prosthetic hand that is both affordable and comfortable. Additionally, the study focuses on ensuring adaptability to accommodate diverse user requirements. Key features of the proposed design consist of EMG sensors for detecting muscle contractions, real-time feedback through LED displays, voltage sensors for battery monitoring, pressure sensors for adaptive grip strength, and the implementation of 3D printing for lightweight, customizable designs. Through this multifaceted approach, the study aims to significantly improve the quality of life for individuals requiring prosthetic support by delivering a solution that aligns with functional requirements while prioritizing user experience and accessibility. The findings are expected to pave the way for further innovations in prosthetic technology, ultimately making these devices more effective and accessible for users.

Integration into 3D Printing for Image Processing using AI ML

The challenges of physical measurement for prosthetic development and highlight how our integrated tool offers a remote solution to address these challenges, promoting accessibility, convenience, and active participation in the prosthetic design process. Our Measurement Module for Prosthetic Hand Dimensions is a comparison of Image Processing and Distance Measurement Methods The creation of a module to precisely measure finger dimensions for the creation of prosthetic hands is the main goal of this research project. The module provides distance measurement and image-based input as two different ways to get dimensions. Users place their hands at predetermined distances from a screen in the distance measurement option, while users submit photographs of their hands with reference objects for scale in the image based input option. In order To provide a proper fit and functionality, the collected dimensions are an essential component of the prosthetic hand construction process. The study contrasts the efficiency of distance measurement methods employing cameras or other cameras with image processing techniques like edge recognition and contour analysis. Accuracy, usability, and efficiency are among the factors that are assessed to identify the best method for acquiring dimensions. OpenCV for image processing, TensorFlow for machine learning-based analysis, Tkinter for UI design, Mediapipe for landmark identification and hand tracking, and NumPy for numerical operations are just a few of the open-source libraries that are used in this module. The module's possible influence on improving the creation and customization of prosthetic hands is also covered. By offering insights into effective and precise dimension measurement methodologies for customized prosthetic hand design, the study's findings advance the area of prosthetics

Deep learning approach to improve the recognition of hand gesture with multi force variation using electromyography signal from amputees

Variations in muscular contraction are known to significantly impact the quality of the generated EMG signal and the output decision of a proposed classifier. This is an issue when the classifier is further implemented in prosthetic hand design. Therefore, this study aims to develop a deep learning classifier to improve the classification of hand motion gestures and investigate the effect of force variations on their accuracy on amputees. The contribution of this study showed that the resulting deep learning architecture based on DNN (deep neural network) could recognize the six gestures and robust against different force levels (18 combinations). Additionally, this study recommended several channels that most contribute to the classifier's accuracy. Also, the selected time domain features were used for a classifier to recognize 18 combinations of EMG signal patterns (6 gestures and three forces). The average accuracy of the proposed method (DNN) was also observed at 92.0 ± 6.1 %. Moreover, several other classifiers were used as comparisons, such as support vector machine (SVM), decision tree (DT), K-nearest neighbors, and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). The increase in the mean accuracy of the proposed method compared to other conventional classifiers (SVM, DT, KNN, and LDA), was 17.86 %. Also, the study's implication stated that the proposed method should be applied to developing prosthetic hands for amputees that recognize multi-force gestures.

Biometric analysis hand parameters in young adults for prosthetic hand and ergonomic product applications.

This study aimed to evaluate the superficial anatomy, kinesiology, and functions of the hand to reveal its morphometry and apply the findings in various fields such as prosthetic hand and protective hand support product design. We examined 51 young adults (32 females, 19 males) aged between 18-30. Hand photographs were taken, and measurements were conducted using ImageJ software. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationship between personal information and the parameters. The results of the measurements showed the average lengths of finger segments: thumb (49.5±5.5 mm), index finger (63.9±4.1 mm), middle finger (70.7±5.2 mm), ring finger (65.5±4.8 mm), and little finger (53.3±4.3 mm). Both females and males, the left index finger was measured longer than the right index finger. The right ring finger was found to be longer than the left in both sexes. Additionally, length differences between fingers in extended and maximally adducted positions were determined: thumb-index finger (56.1±6.2 mm), index-middle finger (10.7±4.1 mm), middle-ring finger (10.8±1.4 mm), and ring-little finger (25.6±2.7 mm). Other findings included the average radial natural angle (56.4°±10.5°), ulnar natural angle (23.4°±7.1°), radial deviation angle (65.2°±8.2°), ulnar deviation angle (51.2°±9.6°), and grasping/gripping angle (49.1°±5.8°). The average angles between fingers in maximum abduction positions were also measured: thumb-index finger (53.4°±6.5°), index-middle finger (17.2°±2.6°), middle-ring finger (14.3°±2.3°), and ring-little finger (32.1°±7.0°). The study examined the variability in the positioning of proximal interphalangeal joints during maximum metacarpophalangeal and proximal interphalangeal flexion, coinciding with maximum distal interphalangeal extension movements. The focal points of our observations were the asymmetrical and symmetrical arches formed by these joints. This study provides valuable hand parameters in young adults, which can be utilized in various applications such as prosthetic design, ergonomic product development, and hand-related research. The results highlight the significance of considering individual factors when assessing hand morphology and function.

Soft Robotics Enables Neuroprosthetic Hand Design.

Development and implementation of neuroprosthetic hands is a multidisciplinary field at the interface between humans and artificial robotic systems, which aims at replacing the sensorimotor function of the upper-limb amputees as their own. Although prosthetic hand devices with myoelectric control can be dated back to more than 70 years ago, their applications with anthropomorphic robotic mechanisms and sensory feedback functions are still at a relatively preliminary and laboratory stage. Nevertheless, a recent series of proof-of-concept studies suggest that soft robotics technology may be promising and useful in alleviating the design complexity of the dexterous mechanism and integration difficulty of multifunctional artificial skins, in particular, in the context of personalized applications. Here, we review the evolution of neuroprosthetic hands with the emerging and cutting-edge soft robotics, covering the soft and anthropomorphic prosthetic hand design and relating bidirectional neural interactions with myoelectric control and sensory feedback. We further discuss future opportunities on revolutionized mechanisms, high-performance soft sensors, and compliant neural-interaction interfaces for the next generation of neuroprosthetic hands.

Design and Implementation of Haptic Prosthetic Hand for Realization of Intuitive Operation

Abstract: This project presents the design and implementation of a microcontroller-based voice activated wireless automation and hand movement system replicating using flex sensor system. As speech is the preferred mode of communication for human beings, this project intends to make the voice-oriented command for controlling the hand movements. The voice command is user independent. The system comprises of transmitting section and receiving section. Initially, the voice command is stored in the data base with the help of the function keys. Later the input voice commands are transmitted to through wireless device. The voice received is processed in the voice recognition system where the feature of the voice command is extracted and matched with the existing sample in the database. The module recognizes the voice and sends control messages to the microcontroller. This project also focuses on replicating the movements of the human hand using a plastic 3D printed hand simulation (hand frame). The flex sensors and servo motors work in co-ordination with ARDUINO to achieve this. The sensor sends the value to the ARDUINO, the ARDUINO processes the data and sends it to the servo motors. Based on the values provided the motor moves and thus the movement of the prosthetic hand is observed-replicating the motion of the hand.The functionality of the proposed project is based on myo-electric arm

Integrated intelligent tactile system for a humanoid robot

Tactile perception is the basis of human motion. Achieving artificial tactility is one of the challenges in the fields of smart robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), because touch emulation relies on high-performance pressure sensor arrays, signal reading, information processing, and feedback control. In this paper, we report an integrated intelligent tactile system (IITS) that is integrated with a humanoid robot to achieve human-like artificial tactile perception. The IITS is a closed-loop system that includes a multi-channel tactile sensing e-skin, a data acquisition and information processing chip, and a feedback control. With customized preset values of threshold pressures, the IITS-integrated robot can flexibly grasp various objects. The IITS has potential applications in the design of prosthetic hands, space manipulators, deep-sea exploration robots, and human-robot interactions.

Design of a Single-DoF Prosthetic Hand With Practical Maximum Grip Force and Grasp Speed for ADLs Using Dual-Motor Actuator

Sufficient grip force and appropriate grasp speed provided by a prosthetic hand are essential for daily use. However, due to limitations in size and weight, it is very challenging to select motors that can generate enough power to provide sufficient grip force and high grasp speed. Accordingly, this research proposes a new prosthetic hand design using a dual-motor actuator as an actuation strategy, which consists of two motors separated by a differential mechanism to operate at the load (high force) and no-load (high speed) conditions individually. One motor is used for creating a high torque and the other for creating a high speed, so the prosthetic hand can operate at the loads without using a high-power motor with excessive size and weight. The developed prosthetic hand can perform grasping motions with the following achievements: It can provide a maximum grip force of 80.2 N and maintain a maximum of 62 N with non-backdrivable mechanisms, and provide an average closing time of 1.2 s. Furthermore, the design can provide more grip force than research prosthetic hands using a single motor.

Highly Anthropomorphic Finger Design With a Novel Friction Clutch for Achieving Human-Like Reach-and-Grasp Movements.

In the design of prosthetic hand fingers, achieving human-like movement while meeting anthropomorphic demands such as appearance, size, and lightweight is quite challenging. Human finger movement involves two distinct motion characters during natural reach-and-grasp tasks: consistency in the reaching stage and adaptability in the grasping stage. The former one enhances grasp stability and reduces control complexity; the latter one promotes the adaptability of finger to various objects. However, conventional tendon-driven prosthetic finger designs typically incorporate bulky actuation modules or complex tendon routes to reconcile the consistency and adaptability. In contrast, we propose a novel friction clutch consisting of a single tendon and slider, which is simple and compact enough to be configurated within the metacarpal bone. Through tactfully exploiting the friction force to balance the gravity effect on each phalanx during finger motion, this design effectively combines both consistency and adaptability. As a result, the prosthetic finger can maintain consistent motion unaffected by any spatial posture during reaching, execute adaptive motion during grasping, and automatically switch between them, resulting in human-like reach-and-grasp movements. Additionally, the proposed finger achieves a highly anthropomorphic design, weighing only 18.9 g and possessing the same size as an adult's middle finger. Finally, a series of experiments validate the theoretical effectiveness and motion performance of the proposed design. Remarkably, the mechanical principle of the proposed friction clutch is beneficial to achieve highly anthropomorphic design, providing not only a new strategy to prosthetic hand design but also great potential in hand rehabilitation.

The Yale MyoAdapt Hand: A Highly Functional and Adaptive Single Actuator Prosthesis

The drawbacks of many commercially available multi-actuator prosthetic hands have led to high rejection rates in both adults and children. For an active lifestyle, there is a need for a device that is both lightweight and easy to control. Underactuation has quickly become an attractive solution in prosthetics by reducing the control burden and the weight of multi-actuator hands while still providing a compliant anthropomorphic grasp. In this paper we present the design and evaluation of a novel single actuator prosthetic hand. The hand uses adaptive mechanisms to allow for three unique grasp types with varying grasp rates, force output and thumb positions. The hand kinematics and geometry are optimized to prevent against common grasp failure modes of underactuated grippers. The hand was evaluated through benchtop and human subject testing to evaluate its effectiveness on activities of daily living. Additionally, we compared the performance of the hand to previously published results from a powered hook, a single actuator anthropomorphic robotic hand, and several commercial multi-actuator anthropomorphic robotic hands. The results show that the hand is comparable even to multiactuator commercial devices with users who have trained on these devices for several months to years.

Design, kinematic modeling and evaluation of a novel soft prosthetic hand with abduction joints

This paper presents a novel tendon-driven soft prosthetic hand with 5 fingers and 9 independent actuators. A special notched structure was used as the finger joint, which brings adequate compliance to grasping. The soft finger has two kinds of vertically arranged joints that can produce flexion/extension and abduction/adduction motions under tension and release, enabling a three-dimensional workspace of the finger and improving the dexterity of the hand. The design and manufacture of the finger and soft hand are described in detail. An open-loop kinematic model based on piecewise constant curvature of the finger was established and verified experimentally. The results show that the model could precisely predict finger movement. The slip resistance of the soft hand was tested, and the capacity to grasp objects was evaluated based on power grasp and precision grasp. With abduction joints, the proposed hand can perform various gestures and in-hand manipulations, which indicate high dexterity. This work provides a way to realize high dexterity for soft prosthetic hands.

Preliminary Design of 3D Printing Prosthetic Hand

To ensure the smoothness of working flow on the shop floor, workers need excellent and healthy physical conditions. However, some people with disabilities, especially those who have lost their limbs, will have difficulty carrying out the production-related activities. These problems become the background of this paper to design a prosthetic hand made by 3D printing technique. Nine servo motor units actuate all the joints and Arduino is applied as a microcontroller. This paper mainly discusses the design of the kinematics model in the hand, electrical system, and basic movements produced by this prosthetic hand. In addition, patterns of gripping are analyzed and compared with the 3D design. The use of servo motors in each joint of the prosthetic hand can be an advantage to increase the variety of motion in it compared with the design using a pull-string force system. Finally, this paper proposes the idea of future development of the hand design, to achieve a more versatile motion of each finger.

Anthropomorphic Prosthetic Hand Inspired by Efficient Swing Mechanics for Sports Activities

Swinging-generating high impact by maximizing the speed of motion-is essential in sports activities. However, designing prosthetic hands suitable for swinging is still a challenge. Herein, in this article, we propose a swing-dedicated prosthetic hand that adopts the anatomical features of humans for an efficient swing. Our design, inspired by the joint arthrokinematics and tendon routing of fingers, enables a diagonal power “squeeze” grip robust to impact while increasing the reach of the clubhead. The swing speed is further increased by radio/ulnar deviation of the wrist and its nonlinear stiffness change achieved by the passive clutch mechanism. We evaluated our prosthetic hand through golf and found that it sustained high impact with diagonal grip, and clubhead speed increased by 19% at 90 r/min, with the radio/ulnar deviation nonlinearly correlated with arm angle. Our prosthetic hand design will contribute to improving amputees’ quality of life by allowing them to participate in sports activities.

Low Cost Design of 3D Printed Prosthetic Hand with IR Sensor

Abstract: One of the most common problem that disabled persons with amputation in upper limb they couldn’t buy a commercial prosthetic hand because it very expansive and up to thousands of dollars, Researchers and developer aspire to manufacture an prosthetic hand that performs the same functions and activates of natural hand. This paper includes the design and development of a low-cost prosthetic hand (less than a1000$) that capable of wearing from the persons who has amputation in the hand, this design represent a hand with five finger capable of movement and gripping the object, rotatable wrist and socket connect with amputation body capable to up and down the forearm . The design of this prosthetic hand possess 18 degree of freedom (DOF), 3DOFfor each finger except the thumb has 4DOF, 2DOFfor wrist and 2DOF for socket. The design prosthetic hand work by under actuated system 7 servo motors with tendon to move the fingers material (PLA). The design element and tesht in solid work to avoid overlapping between fingers and then after manufacture the design try it in real life to movement and gripping the object. Keywords: Prosthetic hand, degree of freedom, 3d printing, solid work.

Optimal design of dexterous prosthetic hand with five-joint thumb and fingertip tactile sensors based on novel precision grasp metric

Current linkage-driven prosthetic hands still show limitations in aspects such as the thumb design and fingertip sensor. Moreover, linkage-driven prosthetic hands still lack quantitative precision grasp quality. In this study, we developed a novel thumb structure with coupled abduction–adduction and pronation–supination movement in the trapeziometacarpal joint. We also developed a fully integrated fingertip tactile sensor with all components embedded in the distal phalanx designed to facilitate in-hand precision manipulation. Furthermore, we devised a new metric to evaluate the precision grasp quality based on the force conditions during grasp. On the basis of this metric, we optimized the geometry parameters of the thumb and index finger using the Monte Carlo method. The results show that, compared with the anthropomorphic trajectory measured from a human index, the proposed method improves the grasping ability by more than 10%. Finally, we developed a prototype prosthetic hand based on the proposed design methods and demonstrated by experiment that it was able to perform human-like thumb opposition and to pass both precision and power grasp tests.

A relation spectrum inheriting Taylor series: muscle synergy and coupling for hand

There are two famous function decomposition methods in math: the Taylor series and the Fourier series. The Fourier series developed into the Fourier spectrum, which was applied to signal decomposition and analysis. However, because the Taylor series function cannot be solved without a definite functional expression, it has rarely been used in engineering. We developed a Taylor series using our proposed dendrite net (DD), constructed a relation spectrum, and applied it to decomposition and analysis of models and systems. Specifically, knowledge of the intuitive link between muscle activity and finger movement is vital for the design of commercial prosthetic hands that do not need user pre-training. However, this link has yet to be understood due to the complexity of the human hand. In this study, the relation spectrum was applied to analyze the muscle—finger system. One single muscle actuates multiple fingers, or multiple muscles actuate one single finger simultaneously. Thus, the research was focused on muscle synergy and muscle coupling for the hand. The main contributions are twofold: (1) The findings concerning the hand contribute to the design of prosthetic hands; (2) The relation spectrum makes the online model human-readable, which unifies online performance and offline results. Code is available at https://github.com/liugang1234567/Gang-neuron.

Design and slip prevention control of a multi-sensory anthropomorphic prosthetic hand

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to design a multi-sensory anthropomorphic prosthetic hand and a grasping controller that can detect the slip and automatically adjust the grasping force to prevent the slip.Design/methodology/approachTo improve the dexterity, sensing, controllability and practicability of a prosthetic hand, a modular and multi-sensory prosthetic hand was presented. In addition, a slip prevention control based on the tactile feedback was proposed to improve the grasp stability. The proposed controller identifies slippages through detecting the high-frequency vibration signal at the sliding surface in real time and the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) was used to extract the eigenvalues to identify slippages. Once the slip is detected, a direct-feedback method of adjusting the grasp force related with the sliding times was used to prevent it. Furthermore, the stiffness of different objects was estimated and used to improve the grasp force control. The performances of the stiffness estimation, slip detection and slip control are experimentally evaluated.FindingsIt was found from the experiment of stiffness estimation that the accuracy rate of identification of the hard metal bottle could reach to 90%, while the accuracy rate of identification of the plastic bottles could reach to 80%. There was a small misjudgment rate in the identification of hard and soft plastic bottles. The stiffness of soft plastic bottles, hard plastic bottles and metal bottles were 0.64 N/mm, 1.36 N/mm and 32.55 N/mm, respectively. The results of slip detection and control show that the proposed prosthetic hand with a slip prevention controller can fast and effectively detect and prevent the slip for different disturbances, which has a certain application prospect.Practical implicationsDue to the small size, low weight, high integration and modularity, the prosthetic hand is easily applied to upper-limb amputees. Meanwhile, the method of the slip prevention control can be used for upper-limb amputees to complete more tasks stably in daily lives.Originality/valueA multi-sensory anthropomorphic prosthetic hand is designed, and a method of stable grasps control based on slip detection by a tactile sensor on the fingertip is proposed. The method combines the stiffness estimation of the object and the real-time slip detection based on DWT with the design of the proportion differentiation robust controller based on a disturbance observer and the force controller to achieve slip prevention and stable grasps. It is verified effectively by the experiments and is easy to be applied to commercial prostheses.