Press. Voanews.
Italian
researchers on Thursday unveiled a new robotic hand they say allows users to
grip objects more naturally and featuring a design that will lower the price
significantly. The Hennes robotic hand has a simpler mechanical design compared
with other such myoelectric prosthetics, characterized by sensors that react to
electrical signals from the brain to the muscles, said researcher Lorenzo De
Michieli. He helped develop the hand in a lab backed by the Italian Institute
of Technology and the INAIL state workers' compensation prosthetic center.
The Hennes has
only one motor that controls all five fingers, making it lighter, cheaper and
more able to adapt to the shape of objects. "This can be considered
low-cost because we reduce to the minimum the mechanical complexity to achieve,
at the same time, a very effective grasp, and a very effective behavior of the
prosthesis," De Michieli said. "We maximized the effectiveness of the
prosthetics and we minimized the mechanical complexity."
They plan to
bring it to market in Europe next year with a target price of around 10,000
euros ($11,900), about 30 percent below current market prices.
Arun Jayaraman,a
robotic prosthetic researcher at the Shirley Ryan Ability lab in Chicago, said
the lighter design could help overcome some resistance in users to the
myoelectric hands, which to date have been too heavy for some. Italian
researchers say the Hennes weighs about the same as a human hand.
In the United
States, many amputees prefer the much simpler hook prosthetic, which attaches
by a shoulder harness, because it allows them to continue to operate heavy
equipment, Jayaraman said.
Italian retiree
Marco Zambelli has been testing the Hennes hand for the last three years. He
lost his hand in a work accident while still a teenager, and has used a variety
of prosthetics over the years. A video presentation shows him doing a variety
of tasks, including removing bills from an automated teller machine, grasping a
pencil and driving a stick-shift car.
"Driving,
for example, is not a problem," Zambelli, 64, said, who has also learned
to use a table knife. "Now I have gotten very good at it. I think anyone
who's not looking with an expert eye would find it difficult to spot that it's
an artificial hand."
About a dozen
labs worldwide are working on improvements to the myoelectric prosthetic, with
some focusing on touch, others on improving how the nervous system communicates
with the prosthetic.
"Each group
is giving baby steps to help the field move forward," Jayaraman said. Cost
remains a barrier for advanced prosthetic limbs, as well as the fact that the
more complex motorized systems tend to be "heavy and fragile. They also
get hard to control," said Robert Gaunt, an assistant professor of
rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Hennes
design "could make a difference. I think it is a clever approach and one
that could see significant benefits for people with missing hands," he
said. Limitations remain the inability to control individual fingers for tasks
like playing the piano or typing on a computer. "But the vast majority of
what many of us do with our hands every day is simply grasp objects,"
Gaunt said.
Associated Press