Design of a Variable Mechanical Advantage Mechanism for the Delft Cylinder Hand

The Delft Cylinder Hand and similar body powered hand prostheses require an input force that is too high for daily tasks. The force is perceived as uncomfortable and leads to a high rate of users abandoning their prosthesis. Reducing the input force by increasing the mechanical advantage of the system is not feasible, as this would unfavourably...

Design of a Hydraulic Prosthetic Hand: Adding an active thumb to the Delft Cylinder Hand

Body Powered Hand Prostheses provide the user with a replacement for a missing hand. Current body powered hand prostheses are inefficient and require large input forces for the control. Improvements are needed to provide amputees with adequate body powered hand prostheses. The Delft Cylinder Hand, a promising design for an underactuated...

Natural grasping, design and evaluation of a voluntary closing adaptive hand prosthesis

Replacement of a missing hand by an artificial alternative remains one of the biggest challenges in rehabilitation. Although many different terminal devices are available, around 27% of the amputees does not actively use their device and 20% totally refrains from wearing it. There are various reasons for prosthesis abandonment, e.g. wearing...