Body powered anthropomorphic prosthetic hand with force feedback and auto-rotation regimes

Currently available prosthetic hand devices suffer from lack of voluntary wrist movement or are prohibitively expensive. A prosthetic hand was designed as a potential low-cost alternative to these models. The hand incorporates a body powered shoulder harness for generating grip force and adds a motor housed in the wrist for axial rotation of the wrist, which can be manually controlled by pressure switches worn on the user´s toes. Additionally, a microcontroller uses infrared signals emitted from the wrist to auto-rotate the palm towards the nearest detected object when this mode is turned on. The design represents a considerable advantage in terms of functionality and cost over available commercial models.