Development of new cosmetic gloves for a myoelectric prosthetic hand by using elastomer

Abstract

This paper reports on the design and development of new cosmetic gloves for a powered prosthetic hand which provide realistic appearance and flexible motion of a robot hand. The main design issues are divided in five as follows : appearance, gripping performance, durability, texture, and flexibility. The appearance denotes shape, wrinkling, finger stamp, nail, and color, all of which aim to simulate the properties of human body characteristics. The durability is evaluated by adaptability to daily living, and flexible materials without prevention of finger motion. Furthermore, the gripping performance is improved by the thickness map of the palm which is well fit to gripping objects. The experiment shows the results of the performance test applied to the pick-and-place task by using a powered prosthetic hand in order to evaluate the total properties of the developed cosmetic gloves.