This book describes the technical design characteristics of the main
components that go into forming an artificial hand, whether it is a
simple design that does not have a natural appearance, or a more
complicated design where there are multiple movements of the fingers and
thumb. Mechanical components obviously form the structure of any hand,
while there are some lesser known ideas that need to be explored such as
how to process a slip signal.
The focus of the book is the design of artificial hands for people, who
through trauma or congenitally, only have one or no natural hands, with
an emphasis on myolectric hands - powered hands that are controlled by
the small electrical signals from residual muscles. An in-depth
treatment of mechanisms, sensors, control, and hand assessment is
included.
Bringing together decades of research from the University of
Southampton - a centre of excellence in this field - this book is
essential reading for researchers and advanced students of robotics,
prosthetics and mechatronics as well as professional engineers and
prosthetists in universities, industry and hospitals who are involved in
the design and manufacture of prosthetic hands.