2018 participants
Cristovao Mario Cacombe
Partial hand amputation is by far the most common type of amputation worldwide, Nevertheless, regardless of their potential clinical and socioeconomic impact, battery-powered partial hand prostheses, namely, powered digits, have modestly progressed so far, and very few clinical solutions are available today. Here, I present a mechanical architecture, an alternative to state-of-the-art solutions, which exploits a high efficiency. During this research internship, I will design and control a simple, but robust, 3D printed finger designed to be used for partial hand amputees or integrated into a prosthetic hand. By using CAD software and the 3D printer available at the University laboratory, many different design criteria for finger prosthesis will be. After fabrication, the finger will have a motor inside which will be controlled using an electronic circuit that measures and analyses the activity of muscles. We anticipate that with this finger a hand prosthesis with a total cost below £100 can be produced in the future.
Funded by: Newcastle University
Project Supervisor: Dr Kianoush Nazarpour