DESIGN OF WIRELESS PROSTHETIC HAND

Contents

Introduction
Why Wireless robotic arm
System Description
Block Diagram
System Operation
Conclusion
References
Photographs
 Introduction

Prosthetic arms which are available in the market are classified as

Mechanical Arm
Electrical driven arm
Myo-electric arm

Mechanical arm operates using body power with the use of Bowden
cables. That cable is attached to the soldier with a string. When
the movement of the soldier occurs, the cable is stretched hence
opening & closing of plum takes place.

Electrically driven arm operates using relays & switches, no harness

cable is required.

With the advent of new technology arm prosthesis reached to a new

dimension results a new prosthetic arm , where the features of grip
force has been implemented & the whole system operates using EMG
signal (Signal from muscle)
 Why Wireless Robotic arm
It has been seen that the signal strength from amputee stump decreases as the
years of amputation increases.

It is because the muscle slowly lost its elasticity, if it is unused for a number of
years

For the amputation above 20 years, the muscles permanently lost its
elasticity and comes under a permanent fatigue state.

EMG signal lost forever in that situation. So our state-of-the-art technology

(Myo Electric arm) will be of no use.

In this situation it is indeed a very challengeable task for rehabilitation.

Amputee needs all types of features like Myo electric arm but the feed signal
should not be EMG.

As a solution of the above stated problem, we have developed one wireless

robotic arm, in CSIO where all the features are present but the input feed is not
an EMG signal, It operates using wireless switch.
 System Description

Total System

RF Transmitter

RF Receiver
 RF Transmitter

Four
Switches

Antenna for RF
Signal Transmitter Encoder
Transmission

RF
Transmission
Module
Block Diagram of RF Transmitter

Figure 1. Block diagram of RF transmitter

 Contd..
Switches
All the switches are of Micro switch type
They are connected with four input data pins of Encoder
The switches are marked as STOP; OPEN; CLOSE
WITH LOW GRIP; CLOSE WITH HIGH GRIP (Right to
left)
Encoder
The encoder has 8 bit address bus, four bit data bus
One Transmission enable port pin, denotes whether the
transmission is successful or not
The address bus is grounded as no another device
except switches are connected
One internal crystal which provides the clock for data
transmission
 Contd..

RF Transmission module
This module is used for data modulation & transmission
The modulation type is AM
Carrier frequency is 434 MHz

Antenna for RF communication

It is a simple wire
It is stripped at another end, which acts as a simple wire
radiator antenna
 RF Receiver

Receiving
Antenna

Microcontroller
RF Receiving
with Motor RF Receiver Module
Driver

Decoder
 Block Diagram of RF Receiver

Figure 2. Block diagram of RF receiver with grip controlled circuitry

 Contd..
Antenna for RF Receiver
It is same as described in Transmitter section
RF Receiving module
This module is used for data demodulation & re shaping
The Demodulation type is AM
Carrier frequency is 434 MHz
Decoder
The decoder is synchronized with encoders in all prospect
The decoder has same 8 bit address bus, four bit data output.
All the data output pins are connected to the microcontroller
pins
One Valid Transmission port pin, denotes whether the
transmission is valid or not
The address bus is grounded
One internal crystal which provides the clock for data receiving
 Contd..

Microcontroller With Motor Driver

It is the heart of the whole system
All Four output pins from decoder and the Motor driver pins
are connected with microcontroller as shown in the block
diagram of receiver
The two limit switches measures the maximum extent of
opening & closing of Plum
The Opto Switches are used as a Limit Switch
Microcontroller drives the DC motor through Driver circuitry
as the signal (Low to High ) received from the Decoder output
pins.
External Pulse shaping circuit is used to control the duty cycle
of the pulses generates to control the speed of DC motor
The software written based on speed control of DC motor
 System Operation

Total Operation

Close Arm Open Arm

Close with Low Grip Close with High Grip

 Contd..

Video of wireless prosthetic hand

 Conclusion

The arm has been developed & Tested with 2 different level of grip
forces in CSIO

The wrist is not automatic, it is manually controlled Rachett based.

Level of the grip forces can be increased if the number of the

switches are increased in transmitter section.

Wrist rotation can be controlled electronically if the mechanical

arrangement can be modified and attached with motor shaft.
 Photograph

Figure: Transmitter & Receiver along with Hand

 References

[1] Ferguson, G Reg Dunlop, Grasp Recognition from Myo electric

Signal, Proc. Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation,
27-29, Nov 2002, Auckland

[2] Andres Herrera, Andres Bernal, David Isaza and Malek Adjouadi,
Design of a Electrical Prosthetic Gripper using EMG and Linear
Motion Approach, the National Science Foundation grants EIA-
9906600 and HRD-0317692

[3] Edwin Iversen, Harold H. Sears, and Stephen C. Jacobsen,

APPLICATIONS OF CONTROL, IEEE Control Systems Magazine, pp
16-20, 2005 (doi: 10.1109/MCS.2005.1388792)
Thank you !