Soft Synergy-Based Artificial Hand for Prosthetic Applications

描述（由申请人提供）：人手对于许多日常生活活动（ADL）的表现至关重要，包括自我进食，工具使用和娱乐。因此，由于外伤性损伤或疾病导致的手部丧失严重限制了肢体丧失者进行日常生活和工作的能力，从而极大地影响了整体生活质量。尽管假肢的设计和研究取得了进展，但仍存在一些障碍，使假肢无法被肢体丧失者广泛接受。阻碍假肢使用的两个最重要的因素是假肢有限的功能，例如，执行ADL的能力有限，以及舒适度，包括假肢的适合度和重量。与放弃假肢相关的其他因素是假手的耐用性；缺乏感觉反馈；成本，考虑到更复杂的手假体的初始和维护成本，即肌电模型，这可能是显著的；以及假手的美观外观。因此，目前市面上可买到的假肢无法满足肢体丧失者的需求，即恢复一定程度的自主性、功能和重新进入劳动力市场。为了解决上述假肢手研究的空白，以及帮助肢体丧失者，我们提出在比萨大学和意大利理工学院（IIT）共同设计的假手的基础上设计一种新型假肢，即比萨/IIT SoftHand （SH）。SH的设计基于最近提出的“软协同”方法，该方法利用了人手协同作用的概念和新型软机器人技术的结合。SH是为机器人应用而设计和实现的，因此它在经桡骨截肢患者的假肢应用方面的潜力仍有待证明。然而，初步数据表明，健康对照者使用肌电版的SH可以在最少的训练下抓住和操纵各种各样的物体。拟议的研究旨在实现两个目标：(1)量化SH在正常个体假肢应用中的功能能力；(2)量化改良SH在肢体丧失者身上的功能能力。第1阶段（第1年）的结果将用于实施SH（插座，基于肌电图的控制器，力反馈接口）的设计修改，以便在患者身上进行测试（第2阶段，第2年）。为了这两个目的，我们将使用临床医生用于上肢丧失者功能评估的任务，以及生物力学测试。我们假设患者将学习使用SH并执行比当前终端设备所允许的更高水平的抓取和操作任务。这项探索性研究的长期目标是为更大规模的研究提供重要的基础，重点是：(1)设计一种低成本和高性能的假肢，将被肢体丧失的人接受；(2)使其能够比目前的市售假肢更广泛地执行ADL任务。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The human hand is critically important for performance of many activities of daily living (ADL), including self- feeding, tool use, and recreation. Therefore, loss of the hand due to traumatic injury or disease significantly limits persons with limb loss' ability to perform ADL and work, thus greatly affecting overall quality of life. Despite advances in hand prostheses design and research, several barriers remain against widespread acceptance of prosthetic hands by persons with limb loss. The two most significant deterrents to prosthetic use are prostheses' limited functionality, e.g., limited ability to perfor ADL, and comfort, which includes fit and weight of prosthesis. Additional factors associated with abandonment of hand prostheses are durability of the prosthetic hand; lack of sensory feedback; cost, which can be significant when considering both the initial and maintenance costs of the more sophisticated hand prostheses, i.e., myoelectric models; and the aesthetic appearance of the prosthetic hand. Therefore, today's commercially available hand prostheses fail to address the needs of persons with limb loss, i.e., regaining some degree of autonomy, functionality, and re-entering the work force. To address the above gaps in hand prosthetic research and access to persons with limb loss, we propose to design a new prosthetic hand based on an artificial hand designed by the University of Pisa and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), the Pisa/IIT SoftHand (SH). The design of the SH is based on the recently proposed approach of "soft synergies" that capitalizes on the combination of the concept of human hand synergies and novel soft robotics technologies. The SH was designed and implemented for robotics applications, and therefore its potential for prosthetic applications on patients with transradial amputation remains to be demonstrated. However, preliminary data suggest that healthy controls using the myoelectric version of the SH can grasp and manipulate a wide variety of objects with minimal training. The proposed studies were designed to pursue two aims: (1) to quantify the functional capabilities of the SH for prosthetic applications on intat individuals, and (2) to quantify the functional capabilities of the modified SH on persons with limb loss. The results of Aim 1 (year 1) will be used to implement design modifications to the SH (socket, EMG-based controller, force feedback interface) to be tested on patients (Aim 2, year 2). For both aims, we will use tasks used by clinicians for functional assessment of persons with upper limb loss, as well as biomechanical tests. We hypothesize that patients will learn to use the SH and perform grasp and manipulation tasks to a greater level than that allowed by their current terminal devices. The long-term objectives of this exploratory study are to provide an important foundation for a larger study focusing on (1) the design of a low- cost and high-performance hand prosthesis that will be accepted by persons with limb loss, and (2) enable performance of a wider range of ADL tasks than allowed by today's commercially available prostheses.