Dexter hand
An anthropomorphic hand for everyday use and advanced research applications. A smart below-elbow prosthetic, which uses sensors and a camera to "feel" its environment and act intelligently. The prosthetic is an intuitive, and intelligent alternative to existing prosthetic hands. Dexter can adjust its position, orientation, and grip based on visual and force feedback to detect objects, determine appropriate grasps, and maintain object orientation without the need for extensive user input. This intelligent hand can be used for advanced research applications and everyday use.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Specifications
| Weight | 530 | g |
| Speed of Finger Curl | 1.8 | s |
| Worm Gears | 8 | |
| Motors hand | 5 | 6V Pololu 1000:1 Micro Metal Gearmotors (1600 mA) |
| Motor wrist | 1 | 1000:1 Micro Metal Gearmotor |
| Microcontroller | 1 | Arduino Mega 2560 |
| Sensors | 1 | IMU (inertial measurement unit ) |
| 5 | force sensors | |
| 7 | potentiometers | |
| Battery | 1 | 11.1V, 730 mAh Thunder Power RC lithium polymer ba |
| Manufacturing technique | 3D-printing (ABS) | |
| Software (image processing) | ROS | |
| Costs | 1425 | $ |
Overview
A smart below-elbow prosthetic, which uses sensors and a camera to "feel" its environment and act intelligently. The prosthetic is an intuitive, and intelligent alternative to existing prosthetic hands.
Dexter can adjust its position, orientation, and grip based on visual and force feedback to detect objects, determine appropriate grasps, and maintain object orientation without the need for extensive user input. This intelligent hand can be used for advanced research applications and everyday use.
This prosthetic utilizes 3D imagery and object classification to locate the desired object and move the hand into the correct orientation to grasp. With one input from the user, the hand will grasp the object, and maintain the correct force and orientation to move the object without crushing, dropping, or spilling the contents.
To maintain a modular design, the forearm was created as a separate component of the overall design. The wrist and forearm are connected by a motor shaft that extends out of the forearm into a universal mounting hub. This motor provides the z-axis rotation. The distal end of the forearm is the same size as the bottom wrist, but gets gradually larger as it extends, ultimately ending in a 1 cm offset on the proximal end of the forearm. This creates a more realistic, human-like tapered appearance than a circular or rectangular cross-section.
References
Contains everything from the background story, to mechanical design, electronic design, and software. Describes the bill of materials and cost breakdown.
Control and testing software for the prosthetic arm.
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