Robotic Prosthetic Arm
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Major
Mechanical Engineering
Research Advisor
Stanek, Keith
Advisor's Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Funding Source
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Abstract
Modern prosthetics use robotic gripping devices to return functionality to the user impaired by a lost hand. The key limitations of many commercially-available prosthetic arms are their high cost and their limited sensory information (such as pressure). To address this issue, the purpose of this research was to design and build a prosthetic arm that would be cost effective, and would also give the user feedback to how much force the gripper applies.
To allow the arm to be naturally controlled by the user, the opening and closing functions were controlled by flexing the top and bottom muscles in the forearm. The design of the prosthetic arm also had the ability to give the user sensory feedback through varying frequencies of a speaker placed against the skin. This work provided a strong basis for continued optimization for prosthetic arms that provides functionality and sensory information at an economical cost.
Biography
Robert Duke Adams is a Freshman Undergraduate at UMR who is majoring in Mechanical Engineering and studying pre-medicine courses. At UMR, Robert Adams is involved with Student Council as a representative, the Robotics Competition Team, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Scrubs (pre-med club), Fencing Club and the Honors Seminar. Robert also shadows physicians at a local hospital and is involved with ACES+ (a pre-med honors organization).
Research Category
Engineering
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Document Type
Poster
Award
Engineering poster session, First place
Presentation Date
12 Apr 2006, 1:00 pm
Robotic Prosthetic Arm
Modern prosthetics use robotic gripping devices to return functionality to the user impaired by a lost hand. The key limitations of many commercially-available prosthetic arms are their high cost and their limited sensory information (such as pressure). To address this issue, the purpose of this research was to design and build a prosthetic arm that would be cost effective, and would also give the user feedback to how much force the gripper applies.
To allow the arm to be naturally controlled by the user, the opening and closing functions were controlled by flexing the top and bottom muscles in the forearm. The design of the prosthetic arm also had the ability to give the user sensory feedback through varying frequencies of a speaker placed against the skin. This work provided a strong basis for continued optimization for prosthetic arms that provides functionality and sensory information at an economical cost.
