PHILADELPHIA A Novel Anthropomorphic Myoprosthesis for Transradial Amputees

Overview

Currently, prosthetics are more mechanical apparatuses than a viable replacement for the human hand. There have been several iterations of prosthetics over the years, but no prosthetics have been able to replicate the dexterity and biological properties of the human hand at a low cost. This project is a non-invasive myoelectric hand and wrist prosthetic unit that combines both rigid-body and compliant parts to allow for the actuation of 10 anthropomorphic joints, and a wrist capable of flexion and adduction of 60 degrees. After performing amputee tests, the prosthetic was able to restore 70\% of the range of motion of the human hand on average. The device takes only 2 hours on average to learn to use. This device was 3D-printed using a Form 2 and an Ultimaker 2+ Connect with flexible and tough resin, ABS, PLA, and semi-flex filaments to confer high dexterity and stability. A custom PCB was fabricated to support a spectral analysis algorithm to decode surface EMG with a 94.6\% accuracy. The cost of building the prosthetic was $876.33. This project will serve as a reference to developing more low-cost prosthetics in the future; I have already begun corresponding with disability organizations such as the Amputee Coalition, Microsoft, and Billion Strong to continue feedback and testing cycles with amputees. The prosthetic design has also caught the attention of Hanson Robotics. They are helping to communicate and outsource the work to NGOs and looking at using some of the designs in new limbs for Sophia the Robot.