An Adaptive Prosthetic Terminal Device

描述（由申请人提供）：Empire Robotics，Inc.，与解放技术公司合作，提出开发一种自适应的假肢夹具，通过颗粒介质的“堵塞”来实现。Empire Robotics之前已经展示了抓取器核心技术的实用性，其中包含在柔性不可渗透膜中的颗粒介质可以通过控制膜内的空气压力在固体和流体状态之间转换-在工业自动化应用中。当没有压差施加在系统上时，夹持器是软的，并且可以被动地符合目标物体。在变形之后，空气从膜内部排出，引起“卡住”的刚性状态以牢固地抓住物体。与现有的终端设备，通常包括刚性夹爪相比，建议的夹具可以提高上肢截肢者可以在家里进行日常生活活动（ADL）的便利性，也可以帮助截肢者重返工作岗位。这一建议概述了三个目标，需要证明应用这一小说的可行性 朝向商业上可行的假体终端装置的夹持技术：（1）识别和评估关键卡住特征的可行性（例如，以优化夹持器的夹持强度-重量性能）;（2）设计和构建自含式干扰假体原型;以及（3）从临床医生接收关于假体原型的可行性的初步反馈，并对截肢者受试者进行实验室测试。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Empire Robotics, Inc., in collaboration with Liberating Technologies, Inc., is proposing to develop an adaptive prosthetic gripper enabled by the "jamming" of granular media. Empire Robotics has previously demonstrated the utility of the gripper's core technology-in which granular media contained in a flexible, impermeable membrane can transition between solid-like and fluid-like states by controlling the air pressure within the membrane-in industrial automation applications. When there is no differential pressure applied on the system, the gripper is soft and can passively conform to target objects. After deformation, air is evacuated from inside the membrane inducing a "jammed" rigid state to firmly grasp the object. Compared to existing terminal devices which often consist of rigid clamping jaws, the proposed gripper can improve the ease with which upper-limb amputees can perform activities of daily living (ADLs) in the home, and can also help amputees return to work. This proposal outlines three aims that are required to prove the feasibility of applying this novel gripping technology towards a commercially viable prosthetic terminal device: (1) to identify and evaluate the feasibility of critical jamming features (e.g., to optimize the grip-strength-to-weigh performance of the gripper); (2) to design and build a self-contained jamming prosthesis prototype; and (3) to receive preliminary feedback on the feasibility of the prosthesis prototype from clinicians and to conduct laboratory testing with amputee subjects.