Development of a modular prosthetic arm

Abstract

As part of an EU funded project a number of requirements for the design of an artificial arm were identified: That it should be light, reliable, functional, look natural, and be quiet in operation a design.  To fulfil these goals and provide a systematic response to the application of a prosthesis in the field the design requires a modular approach to the device, in terms of the mechanism, the electronics and the software.  The electronics and control software were developed and the choice of using a modular microprocessor system proved to be effective as they could be applied to existing devices with little specific modification.  Thus a network based arm controller was fitted to arms made up from the Edinburgh Arm system with a Oxford Intelligent hand on the end.  This paper outlines the application of two such devices