1. Air Muscle Artificial Limb
P09023
Air Muscle Artificial Limb
Second Generation
ABSTRACT
The primary goal for this project was to create and control an air muscle activated robotic hand capable of achieving all degrees of freedom of a human hand, with emphasis on the movement of a thumb, pinky, and palm. This was to be done through improvements and additions to the work left behind by the first iteration of the project, which was mainly characterization of the air muscle concept. Achievement of this goal was accomplished through guidance and a generous budget from the team’s sponsor and faculty guide, Dr. Kathleen Lamkin-Kennard, and also through thorough study of human hand anatomy. More development was completed for the air muscles in order to optimize their force and deflection-producing capabilities, and a refined control system was built and programmed to showcase the hand’s abilities. Secondary goals for this project were to make the hand scalable and easily repeatable, and these goals were achieved through the selection of parts off the shelf.
SYSTEM OVERVIEW
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
CONTROL ALGORITHM
AIR MUSCLE TESTING
CONCEPT GENERATION
HAND
BENCHMARKING
The following projects offered a vision for our end product:
Shadow Robot
Curtain University of Technology Hand
RTR 1 Hand
CyberHand
Squse
Tommy Keane
(EE)
Jim Breunig
(ME)
Kelly Scarbrough
(ME)
Dr. Lamkin-Kennard
(ME)
CONCLUSION
Eva Ames
(ME)
Christopher Music
(IE)
Alexandra Bird
(ME)
The air muscle artificial limb exhibits nearly all directions of freedom of a human hand. Functionality could be improved by provding one or more universal joints at the base of the palm near the pinky. The friction in the cables is also significant. This does not allow for the optimum force transmission from the air muscles to the actual finger. The project has the ability to be scaled down with the use of smaller rotary potentiometers.
CONTROLS
LEAD
MECHANICAL
GUIDE/CUSTOMER
For complete details please visit:
The team would like to thank everyone who assisted in making this project a reality.
Special thanks to our sponsor and advisor, Dr. Kathleen Lamkin-Kennard, for her unconditional enthusiasm and support.
Thanks also to:
Dr. Mark Kempski, Dr. Athimoottil Mathew, Mr. John Wellin, Mr. Mark Laitenberger, Dr. Edward Hensel, Dr. Jeff Kozak, Mr. Dave Hathaway, Mr. Rob Kraynik, Dr. Richard Doolittle, Mr. Naresh Potopsingh, and Mr. Chris “Chappy” Sullivan.