Feasibility study of a new powered humeral rotator for upper limb myoelectric prostheses

Current commercial upper limb prostheses could be inadequate to satisfactorily rehabilitate those patients with a high level amputation that require a high functional autonomy in the everyday living. The aim of the study presented in this paper is the design of a new powered humeral rotator to be introduced in the current upper limb prosthesis available at our labs, which is also provided with a powered shoulder articulation having two degrees of freedom. Kinematic and kinetostatic analyses were carried out for determining the reference technical specifications and guiding the design of the new rotator. This paper outlines the main steps of the feasibility study of the new device.