Towards the design of a prosthetic underactuated hand

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents recent advances in the design of an underactuated hand for applications in prosthetics. First, the design of the fingers is addressed. Based on previous experiments with prototypes developed in the past, new tendon routings are proposed that lead to a more effective transmission of the forces. A novel elastic tendon routing is also proposed for the passive opening of the hand. A simplified static analysis of the fingers is proposed to support the results. Then, a new kinematic design of the thumb is presented. The thumb is designed to perform out-of-the-plane motions in order to broaden the variety of possible grasps. A mechanism for the implementation of underactuation between the fingers is proposed that alleviates the friction problems encountered in earlier hand designs. Finally, a prototype of the hand is briefly described and typical grasps are shown.

3D-printed upper limb prostheses: a review

“…Scientific papers have been published regarding research in the field of 3D-printed upper limb prostheses. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] People are developing prostheses individually, and large communities have been established. Most of the development of 3D-printed prostheses began after the establishment of the global community e-NABLE.…”

A Soft Strain Sensor Based on Ionic and Metal Liquids

“…The work presented here is a key aspect of a project [19] with the goal of creating an underactuated prosthetic hand [20] capable of restituting exteroception [21] as well as proprioception [22] to amputees. As part of the work on proprioception, we are currently designing a strain-sensing glove similar to that previously proposed [17] for the purpose of measuring the configuration of an artificial hand.…”

Modeling the Frictional Interaction in the Tendon-Pulley System of the Human Finger for Use in Robotics

“…In particular, tendon-driven robotic and prosthetic hands utilize Teflon-or nylon-coated cables and pulleys, and aim toward frictionless tendon transmission. This is due to friction introducing a number of unwanted side effects, such as (1) nonlinearities [45], (2) hysteresis effects, and (3) energy and power losses [18,22,51]. Designers of robotic hands such as the Shadow hand [43], the smart hand [53], and other tendon-driven prosthetic hands [13,15,16] either intentionally try to minimize friction in their systems (especially in the tendon-pulley system), or consider friction to have no importance in their performance.…”