A New Lightweight, Robust and Forceful Finger for an Artificial Limb

摘要

Hand prostheses need to be lightweight, robust and forceful and should replace the function and range of performance of the human hand in the best possible way. Furthermore, their look and appearance should turn up as naturally as possible. The prostheses and anthropomorphic robot hands known today often lack one or more of those aspects. In our approach, a new lightweight, robust and forceful finger for an artificial limb is presented. The joints are based on viscoelastic joint capsules instead of fixed axes. The result is an artificial finger of anatomically correct size which provides holding forces up to 100 N. We resume, that these properties are excellent qualifications for applications in the field of future hand prostheses.