Design And Fabrication Of A Myoelectric Controlled Prosthetic Hand

Mechatronics

The main goal of the project is to design and fabricate a Prosthetic Hand- A hand that can perform basic human activities using two degrees of freedom viz. gripping and releasing like holding an object, opening and closing doors ,etc. with load on the hand assumed to be 1 kg. The hand size is assumed to be made of standard human size. The beneficiary of this project is assumed to be Indian society and developing the project at an affordable cost is an important consideration. The major aspects of this prototype are design of the geometry of the hand, string pulley mechanism, selection of motor providing sufficient torque, programming of myoelectric sensors. The novel design incorporates four centrally actuated fingers powered to provide gripping and retraction motion. Provision is made in the palm design for mounting a D.C motor. Transmission of motion is achieved through a string pulley mechanism. The hand has been electronically programmed using myoelectric sensors to actuate the D.C motor at the will of the amputee. The myoelectric sensor picks up the signals from the target muscle in the forearm. The signals are of two types corresponding to the two motions of gripping and releasing. Accordingly, the D.C motor actuates in either direction and transmits the motion to the digits through the strings. Stainless Steel has been used as the material of the prototype, which has been manufactured using Laser cutting technique. The prototype has been successfully tested on people of different ages and sex. A prototype thus developed will serve as a platform for future modifications

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