Scan-Driven Fully-Automated Pipeline for a Personalized, 3D Printed Low-Cost Prosthetic Hand

Abstract

The process of fitting a prosthetic hand that is a comfortable, functional, easy to use, has an acceptable appearance and overall improves the amputees' quality of life is a complex, tedious and costly process. The very high price tag due to the time spent on manually fitting the device by a trained specialist makes these devices inaccessible to large portions of the population. We present a concept and preliminary results for a fully automated fitting and manufacturing pipeline for a personalized low-cost prosthetic hand. The hand is personalized in almost every aspect, from appearance to user interface, control and feedback. The pipeline only requires a 3D printer, a RealSense camera, a few basic mechanical components and basic tools for the model assembly. The user scan-driven data and the user preferences initiate a fully-automated pipeline which culminates in a customized, easy-to-assemble PCB design and ready to print STL files, including the optimized orientation, support and layout, such that the final parts are only one click away. We believe that the proposed pipeline and design can substantially improve quality of life for amputees and could potentially be expanded to other medical applications.