Development of prosthetic hand for children using underactuated mechanisms with gear trains

Abstract

Nowadays, there are a lot of children with congenital forearm deficiency. Therefore development of prosthetic hand for children is important. It is necessary for the child prosthesis to be small, close to the appearance of human hand. However, many of the pediatric prosthesis currently being developed do not have the interphalangeal joints (DIP joints), Proximal interphalangeal joints (PIP joints), metacarpophalangeal joints (MP joints), and interphalangeal joints (IP joints). In this study, we have focused on underactuated mechanism with gear trains. This mechanism is useful to reduce the number of actuators, and several joints move in conjunction to grasp.