TY - JOUR
T1 - A novel prosthetic finger design with high load-carrying capacity
AU - Liu, S.
AU - Van, Matthew
AU - Chen, Zijue
AU - Angeles, Jorge
AU - Chen, Chao
N1 - Funding Information:
This project is funded by 2019 IMPACT Philanthropy Program (IPAP2019/0992). The authors would like to thank Mr Godfrey Keung, Mr Aarjav Khara, Mr Charles Troeung, Mr Xing Wang and Mr Hugh Zhou for their contributions in fabricating the 3D printed fingers. The authors would also like to thank Dr Wesley Au and Ms Lilian Khaw for reviewing the manuscript. The fourth author acknowledges the support received from Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council through Grant 2015-03864 .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - Hand loss can cause a significant reduction in functionality and psychological damage, which can be partially recovered by hand prostheses. For 3D-printed prosthetic digits, internal joint forces are critical due to the low strength of 3D-printed components. This paper focuses on the analysis and verification of a novel five-link epicyclic (FLE) finger for 3D-printed hand prostheses. The motion and joint forces of the FLE design were analyzed and compared with the commonly-adopted coupled-four-bar linkage (CFBL) design. The results show that the FLE design yields a reduction in internal joint forces between 21.32% and 86.52%, and mimics the proportions and anthropomorphic motion of a human digit. A destructive test was conducted, which experimentally demonstrated the increased load-carrying capacity of the FLE finger. Therefore, the functionality of a hand prosthesis carrying a FLE finger is expected to be improved over that with a CFBL finger, and thus benefit patients suffering hand loss.
AB - Hand loss can cause a significant reduction in functionality and psychological damage, which can be partially recovered by hand prostheses. For 3D-printed prosthetic digits, internal joint forces are critical due to the low strength of 3D-printed components. This paper focuses on the analysis and verification of a novel five-link epicyclic (FLE) finger for 3D-printed hand prostheses. The motion and joint forces of the FLE design were analyzed and compared with the commonly-adopted coupled-four-bar linkage (CFBL) design. The results show that the FLE design yields a reduction in internal joint forces between 21.32% and 86.52%, and mimics the proportions and anthropomorphic motion of a human digit. A destructive test was conducted, which experimentally demonstrated the increased load-carrying capacity of the FLE finger. Therefore, the functionality of a hand prosthesis carrying a FLE finger is expected to be improved over that with a CFBL finger, and thus benefit patients suffering hand loss.
KW - 3D-printing technology
KW - Constraint analysis
KW - Prosthetic hand
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092229267&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2020.104121
DO - 10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2020.104121
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85092229267
SN - 0094-114X
VL - 156
JO - Mechanism and Machine Theory
JF - Mechanism and Machine Theory
M1 - 104121
ER -