Partial hand and transradial amputations are among the most common levels of amputation. In the former case, a mechanical prosthesis is prescribed, while in the latter case either a mechanical or a myoelectric one are used depending on the patient’s preference and access to the technology. While a variety of prostheses designs are aimed to transradial amputees and plenty others are for partial hand amputations, like the 3D-printed open-source concepts that are activated by the user’s wrist, for a faster and more efficient treatment of hand amputations, one design should be adaptive for different levels of amputation without compromising the prosthesis performance. This work describes a powered prosthesis design with modular fingers and space constraints that allow it to be adapted to different levels of amputation. The prosthesis finger lengths could also be customized to user-specif...

New manufacturing and rapid prototyping technologies have fueled the creation of affordable and easy to replicate upper-limb prostheses. In this matter, many types and designs of 3D-printed upper-limb prostheses have been created over the last years. However, there is no consensus in the testing methodology for these devices regarding their mechanical capabilities and the comparisons authors can make are limited to their own metrics, which could be considered as a subjective approach. In order to tackle this issue, this work revises the existing methods for testing both the mechanical resistance and the mechanical performance or efficiency of upper-limb prostheses; specifically, the ones that are relevant for 3D-printed body-powered prostheses. Then, the adaptations needed to apply these methods to 3D-printed prostheses are discussed. Finally, recommendations are given for prosthetists a...

Se presenta un diseño de una prótesis de mano impresa en 3D para amputados transmetacarpianos y accionada por micromotores de CC. Se utilizaron mecanismos de articulación de cuatro barras para los movimientos de flexión de los dedos índice, medio, anular y meñique, mientras que para el pulgar se utilizó un mecanismo de engranajes cilíndricos y tracción helicoidal. Finalmente, se probó un esquema de control básico en el prototipo para la evaluación de velocidad y fuerza.

Se propone un diseño de una prótesis de mano destinada a amputados transmetacarpianos y propulsada por micromotores de CC. Además, se muestra un método para personalizar los dedos protésicos para que coincidan con una antropometría específica del usuario. Finalmente, se explica la selección de sensores y actuadores, y se prueba un esquema de control básico en el prototipo.

The widespread of 3D-printing technology has resulted in the appearance of many open-source prosthetic hand models, especially for partial hand amputations. However, most of these designs are not editable and while some are parametric to some degree, customization for every user is limited to scaling the size of a base design. As consequence, most prostheses fail to closely match the user specific anthropometry and have poor aesthetics, which could result in abandonment of the device. Furthermore, achieving a high degree of customization could be a time-consuming task and requires previous knowledge of CAD design. This work presents a prosthetic hand easy to customize by changing parametric dimensions of the finger phalanges and palm on an Excel sheet. Additionally, the design tackles common issues from previous 3D-printed body-powered prosthetic hands by incorporating new features such ...