I-Corps: A Powered Prosthetic Hand with Continuous Multi-Grasp Control

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响和商业潜力是开发一种假手，它提供了真正“逼真”的外观，使积极的生活方式、自信地重返工作岗位、运动追求和最佳的自我形象成为可能。在美国，有超过50万人受到上肢丧失的影响，大多数人要么选择无功能的美容假体，要么选择没有。尽管现有设备已经发展出先进的技术能力，但由于易用性、重量和尺寸等问题，总体使用情况仍然保持不变。这个项目提出了一种新的假手，以减少残疾，提高生产力，提高信心。这个I-Corps项目是基于假手控制、生产和机械结构技术的发展。目前，多指手需要用户在他/她想要改变姿势时命令肌肉收缩的编码模式。用户认为这个额外的步骤和相关的计划工作对任务性能来说是繁重和破坏性的。所提出的技术是一种新的肌电界面（EMG）手控方法，它提供了一种更直观的方式来访问更大的抓取空间，同时保留了标准两点肌电的简单性和鲁棒性。因为假手是通过软组织附着在身体上，而不是直接附着在骨头上，所以它们的重量通常被认为是需要携带的东西。所提出的设备利用了一种生产方法，利用新可用的细胞结构合成软件和增材制造，以具有竞争力的成本显着提高结构效率并降低质量。由于假肢的尺寸不自然，即使戴上手套，也会引起不必要的注意。为了减小尺寸，该装置采用独特的驱动拓扑结构，采用自下而上的设计方法，利用实际手指个性化差异来减少电机数量和机械复杂性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a prosthetic hand that offers a truly “lifelike” appearance to enable an active lifestyle, confident return-to-work capabilities, athletic pursuits, and optimal self-image. Over half a million people in the US are affected by upper-limb loss and the majority choose either non-functional cosmetic prostheses or none. Though existing devices have evolved advanced technical capabilities, overall use has remained static due to problems with ease-of-use, weight, and size. This project proposes a novel prosthetic hand for decreased disability, increased productivity, and improved confidence. This I-Corps project is based on the development of technology in prosthetic hand control, production, and mechanical architecture. Currently, multi-fingered hands require the user to command coded patterns of muscle contractions whenever he/she wants to change posture. Users report this extra step and associated planning effort as onerous and disruptive to task performance. The proposed technology is a novel method of electromyographic interface (EMG) hand control that offers a more intuitive way of accessing a larger grasp space while retaining the simplicity and robustness of standard two-site EMG. Because prosthetic hands are attached to the body via soft tissue rather than directly to the bone, their weight is generally perceived as something that needs to be carried. The proposed device utilizes a production approach that capitalizes on newly available cellular structure synthesis software and additive manufacturing to significantly increase structural efficiency and reduce mass at competitive cost. Due to unnatural size, prosthetic hands typically draw unwanted attention even when covered with a glove. To reduce size, the proposed device utilizes a unique actuation topology facilitated by a bottom-up design approach that leverages practical finger individuation differences to reduce motor count and mechanical complexity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.