Soft Biomimetic Prosthetic Hand: Design, Manufacturing and Preliminary Examination

The human hand is a complex structure. It is strong but precise. It consists of a very complex mechanical structure that enables the hand to adapt and efficiently handle objects of various shapes, weights and textures. Today's prosthetic devices, struggling to provide similar functions, become overly complex and expensive. They are composed of multiple, precise parts, including miniaturised actuators and sensors as well as complex control, to satisfy the manipulation tasks required. In this paper we propose a soft pneumatic hand that adapts passively to the handled object due to its mechanical compliance. It is pressure driven and enables individual fingers to be controlled independently for dexterity or in groups when a synergistic finger movement is needed. The hand has a truly anatomical shape, is easy to replace and cheap in production. The design can be easily adjusted in terms of shape and size in order to fit each individual user. The paper presents the design, manufacturing technology, current control system and preliminary tests of the hand's capabilities.