Preliminary Design and Evaluation of a Single-Actuator Anthropomorphic Prosthetic Hand with Multiple Distinct Grasp Types

The various drawbacks of complex myoelectric prosthetic hands have led to low adoption rates by upper limb amputees, with upwards of 35% pediatric device rejection and 23% adult device rejection rates. This paper describes the design of a novel 50 th percentile female sized single-actuator anthropomorphic myoelectric hand that was created to address issues commonly associated with myoelectric prosthesis. The hand uses underactuated coupling mechanisms to enable three distinct passively-adaptive grasp types, from a single DC motor and single input control, selected through a simple manual reconfiguration of the digits. The hand was evaluated in a preliminary assessment that included benchtop evaluation and a five subject able-bodied combined Box and Blocks and SHAP test using a bypass socket to evaluate effectiveness on activities of daily living. The able-bodied subject testing results are presented and compared to published SHAP results from commercial powered hook, single-actuator anthropomorphic and multi-actuator anthropomorphic devices.