TY - GEN
T1 - Experimental Study to Improve “Federica” Prosthetic Hand and Its Control System
AU - Esposito, Daniele
AU - Cosenza, Chiara
AU - Gargiulo, Gaetano Dario
AU - Andreozzi, Emilio
AU - Niola, Vincenzo
AU - Fratini, Antonio
AU - D’addio, Giovanni
AU - Bifulco, Paolo
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - Modern 3D printing technologies and wide availability of microcontroller boards allow to make active prosthetic devices in a simple way. This is the case of “Federica”, a very low-cost, under-actuated, active hand prosthesis. The five fingers of the prosthesis are moved by a single motor through inelastic tendons. The control system of the prosthesis is proportional to muscle contraction: firstly, EMG was used, then mechanical sensors that measure muscle volumetric variation were successfully utilized. This prosthesis proved to be particularly energy efficient and fast; it provided a general grasp function by adapting the exerted forces, thus allowing to easily catch even deformable objects. This study presents further analyses and design improvements of this prosthesis. In particular, a new, extremely simple but effective conditioning system of a force sensor resistor was presented and tested. In addition, the actual three-dimensional kinematics of a single finger was captured by means of high frame rate cameras and then analyzed. The new sensor conditioning system was characterized. It proved to be as effective as the EMG envelope to proportionally control the hand prosthesis motion, and it allowed an easier connection to common microcontroller boards. Kinematic analysis allowed to accurately reconstruct the actual phalanges motion over time.
AB - Modern 3D printing technologies and wide availability of microcontroller boards allow to make active prosthetic devices in a simple way. This is the case of “Federica”, a very low-cost, under-actuated, active hand prosthesis. The five fingers of the prosthesis are moved by a single motor through inelastic tendons. The control system of the prosthesis is proportional to muscle contraction: firstly, EMG was used, then mechanical sensors that measure muscle volumetric variation were successfully utilized. This prosthesis proved to be particularly energy efficient and fast; it provided a general grasp function by adapting the exerted forces, thus allowing to easily catch even deformable objects. This study presents further analyses and design improvements of this prosthesis. In particular, a new, extremely simple but effective conditioning system of a force sensor resistor was presented and tested. In addition, the actual three-dimensional kinematics of a single finger was captured by means of high frame rate cameras and then analyzed. The new sensor conditioning system was characterized. It proved to be as effective as the EMG envelope to proportionally control the hand prosthesis motion, and it allowed an easier connection to common microcontroller boards. Kinematic analysis allowed to accurately reconstruct the actual phalanges motion over time.
KW - Kinematic analysis
KW - Muscle contraction sensors
KW - Underactuated prosthetic hand
UR - http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-31635-8_70
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075856149&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-31635-8_70
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-31635-8_70
M3 - Conference publication
SN - 978-3-030-31634-1
T3 - IFMBE Proceedings
SP - 586
EP - 593
BT - 15th Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing – MEDICON 2019 - Proceedings of MEDICON 2019
A2 - Henriques, Jorge
A2 - de Carvalho, Paulo
A2 - Neves, Nuno
PB - Springer
T2 - XV Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing
Y2 - 26 September 2019 through 28 September 2019
ER -