Design of a Bionic Hand Using Non- Invasive Interface

Abstract

<p>The Non-Invasive Bionic Hand was a prosthetic developed for those who are unfortunate enough to have lost a hand. The purpose of the design was to create a robotic hand that could be easily controlled by the user in order to improve their quality of life. In this case, the user would wear a glove on their remaining hand which they then could control the mechanical hand via a four-bit system, where the bits can be selected by flexing their fingers to enable hall effect sensors. A feedback system has been designed to allow the user to sense two states of fingertip pressure. The prototype was constructed with the use of Meccano for the frame, as well as motors to generate finger motion. Signal extraction from the user occurs by utilizing hall effect sensors, proceeded as desired in order to obtain clear, distinct signals to select the various hand positions. Tests have shown that movement of the prosthetic is inconsistent however responds well to user input. While the Meccano prosthetic is impractical for real world application, the design has successfully demonstrated the concept as a whole. With proper materials to construct the prosthetic, in concurrence with lowering the power consumption, the Bionic Hand could be distributed for public use. In this dissertation, the material will be focusing on the mechanical prosthetic itself, along with the glove portion of the device. The theory behind our device, hardware design, and the experimental results are presented.</p>