Development of an Affordable Myoelectric Hand for Transradial Amputees

Upper limb amputations seriously affect a patient's life by restricting their ability in performing various tasks. Prosthetic hands are considered the primary method to reinstate the lost capabilities of such amputees. However, the presently available prosthetic devices are unable to fulfill the requirements of users due to their excessively high cost, limited functionality, heavy weight, unnatural operation, and complexity. This article presents an affordable and simple control-based myoelectric hand for transradial amputees. The hand setup mainly consists of a self-designed surface electromyography (sEMG) sensor, a microcontroller unit and a five-fingered, intrinsically actuated 3D printed hand for dexterous operations. The developed hand was implemented with proportional control scheme and was successfully tested on five amputees (with missing lower forearms) for performing grasping activities of different objects. Further, the closing time and grip force at the fingertips were also determined for the hand to compare its performance with the commercially available hands.