Upper-limb prosthetics

Other artificial muscle applications have been demonstrated as well. Carpi et al. used helical contractile linear actuators and buckling actuators to actuate eyeballs for use in an android face [258, 268, 269]. Another eyeball actuator has been developed by Liu et al. based on their inflated actuator design their actuator is capable of generating eyeball rotations from —50 to 50 [241]. Kombluh et al. have also reported on a mouth driven by a DE actuator [4]. Biddis and Chau have provided a good review on the challenges and opportunities of DE actuators for upper limb prosthetics [270]. 

Biddis E, Chau T (2008) Dielectric elastomers as actuahus fOT upper limb prosthetics challenges and opportunities. Med Eng Phys 30 403... 

Schmidl, H., The importance of information feedback in prostheses for the upper limbs. Prosthet. Orthot Int, 1977.1 21-24. 

The major factors limiting prosAeses to tools are practical ones due to the severe weight, power, and size constraints of hand/atm systems as well as the difficulty in finding a sufficient number of appropriate control sources to control the requisite number of degrees of freedom. Of these, it is the lack of independent control sources that imposes the most severe impediment to the development of today s prosthetic hand/atm systems. As a result, upper-limb prosthetics research is somewhat dominated by considerations of control. Still, the importance of better actuators and better multifunctional mechanisms must not be ignored. Control is useless if effective hand and arm mechatusms are not available. 

Second, this fitting demonstrates the highly modular nature of upper-limb prosthetics today— components from many different manufacturers were used in a mix-and-match approach to obtain the most functional set of prostheses for the user. 

Although the physical design constraints of weight, volume, and power are severe, they are not so severe that multifunctional arms and hands cannot be built that would be of acceptable weight and size. The real problem is, as has been alluded to before, the issue of how to interface a multifunctional arm or hand to an amputee in a meaningful way. It is for this reason that upper-limb prosthetics is often dominated by consideration of control. That is, how can the prosthesis be controlled in such a fashion that it will be an aid rather than a burden to the user ... 

Lower- and Upper-Limb Prosthetics and Orthotics, 1992, Northwestern University Medical School, Prosthetic Orthotic Center, Chicago. 

Biddiss, E. and Chau, T. (2008). Dielectric elastomer as actuators for upper limb prosthetics Challenges and opportrmities, Medical Engineering Physics 30, pp. 403-418. 

Biddiss E, Chau T, Upper-limb prosthetics Critical factors in device abandonment, American Journal of Physical Medicine Rehabilitation, vol. 86, p>p. 977-987,2007. 

Touch Bionics is a leading developer of advanced upper-limb prosthetics (ULP). One of the two products now commercially available from this company, are the i-LIMB Hand , is a first to market prosthetic device with five individually powered digits[4]. This artificial limb looks and acts like a real human hand and represents a generational advance in bionics and patient care. The i-LIMB Hand is controlled by a unique, highly intuitive control system that uses a traditional two-input Myoelectric (muscle signal) to open and close the hand s [5],... 

CHppinger, F.W., A sensory feedback system for an upper-limb amputation prosthesis. Bull Prosthet. Res., 1974. BPR 10-22 247-258. 

Fraser, C. M. (1998). An evaluation of the use made of cosmetic and functional prostheses by unilateral upper-limb amputees. Journal of the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics(ISPO), vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 216-223, Dec. 

Michael, J. W. (1986). Upper-limb powered components and controls current concepts. Clinical Prosthetics and Orthotics, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 66-77. 

Sarrafian, S. K. (1992). Kinesiology and Functional Characteristics of the Upper-Limb. Chap. 5 in Atlas of Limb Prosthetics, Surgical, Prosthetic, and Rehabilitation Principles, 2d ed., Bowker, J. H., and Michael, J. W., (eds.), Mosby-Year Book, Inc., St. Louis, Missouri, pp. 83-105. 

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