The development of prostheses that accurately reproduce fine motor skills remains a key challenge for daily assistance applications. This research presents the development of a soft robotic hand prosthesis prototype inspired by the natural behavior of muscles and tendons, incorporating internal vacuum-based reinforcement and textured fingertip surfaces to enhance friction and grasp adaptability, without relying on force sensors. The prosthesis reproduces open-hand and tripod pinch movements through myoelectric signals (EMG) acquired via a wearable armband equipped with eight surface electrodes. The signals are processed in real-time and classified by a lightweight dense neural network implemented on a low-power microcontroller. Tendon-driven actuation enables biomimetic motion with smooth and compliant behavior. The proposed system was validated through laboratory-based functional tests using user-specific models, showing response times ranging from 0.49 to 2.00 s and an overall grasping effectiveness of approximately 80% when manipulating small everyday objects with different geometries. These results indicate that the prototype constitutes an accessible and functional solution for fine motor assistance, with potential applicability in low-cost and resource-constrained myoelectric prosthetic systems.
Chaucala-Gualotuña et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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