Cosmetic glove stiffness compensation for body-powered hand prostheses: Design of a novel negative stiffness element

The addition of a cosmetic glove to an upper limb prosthesis has an indispensable effect on the cosmetic value, but its viscoelastic behaviour adds a substantial amount of stiffness and hysteresis to the system. Consequently, the overall usability of the prosthesis is degraded. A novel negative stiffness element is designed to compensate for the...