Design and Development of a Multifingered Prosthetic Hand

Abstract

This paper focuses on the development of a robotic hand having fourteen degree-of-freedom (DOF) to trigger finger movement. The design combination and integration of fingers will produce a prosthetic hand which is approximately the size of a human hand. The prototype hand comprised of servo motors located at the palm to drive the pulley and belt mechanism connected to each of the finger joints enabling independent flexion finger link movement. A lightweight Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) sensor is positioned at the middle of the palm is to close around objects. The prosthetic provides three different controls of finger movement through the use of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) with computer interface, program and manually controlled and autonomous movement provided by a micro-controller of this robotic hand. The prototype hand model was developed using rapid prototype technique in order to get the best part quality and reduction in weight. The link parameter analysis to determine the end tip position of the robotic finger at certain rotation angle was computed. Experimental work has been carried out on the prototype robotic hand to ensure the entire rotation angle and movement of each link is functioning as desired.