Bionic Hand with Phalanx built-in servos

Abstract

Losing one or both hands is a devastating experience, as the human hand is used for numerous activities. As a result, restoring a lost limb is a rather important goal, to give back a lost functionality to a user. Currently, most academic papers use a muscle-like approach to achieve such an object, while commercially available solutions to restore one’s limb are done by embedded motors and controllers. In this paper, we focus on creating a prosthetic hand, as close to biomimicry as possible, by embedding a DC motor, a controller and a series of gears into each phalanx of the hand. This is achieved with inexpensive and readily available components and technologies such as 3D printing. The device could be used for telemanipulation and as a prosthetic.

Losing one or both hands is a devastating experience, as the human hand is used for numerous activities. As a result, restoring a lost limb is a rather important goal, to give back a lost functionality to a user. Currently, most academic papers use a muscle-like approach to achieve such an object, while commercially available solutions to restore one’s limb are done by embedded motors and controllers. In this paper, we focus on creating a prosthetic hand, as close to biomimicry as possible, by embedding a DC motor, a controller and a series of gears into each phalanx of the hand. This is achieved with inexpensive and readily available components and technologies such as 3D printing. The device could be used for telemanipulation and as a prosthetic.