One of the many problems prosthesis users have to face in daily life is the lack of the sense of touch. The available solutions to this problem mostly require surgeries that allow complicated electronics to be attached to the user. These may not be available to all the people who need it. The advantage of this project is that it is simpler than the other solutions, which makes it cheaper and easier for the common user. This project achieves this goal by using touch sensors and optional several other sensors connected to a cheap microcontroller which is connected to an array of micro servo motors strapped into the user's non-prosthesis parts. By moving the servo motors according to the output of the sensors, a basic sense of touch can be provided to the user. Although it is not as precise as the other solutions, its ease of usage makes it preferable to other solutions.
The code that controls both the prosthesis model and sensing attachments is ready to be used. At this point the code only runs one micro servo as this is a prototype.
All the 3D printed parts - the prosthesis model and the hand tracker - are assambled and modified to house the buttons. The prosthesis is attached to a piece of wood along with the servos that pull the strings attached to the fingertips. Also the potentiometers that sense the positions of the fingers are attached to the sensing glove.
The Arduino Mega attachments are completed on two pieces of prototyping board. On one board, there are the attachments for the 6 servos which control the prosthesis model and the arm attachment. The other board connects to the analog inputs of the arduino to get input from the hand tracker assembly used to control the prosthesis model model.
The 3D printed parts - Thingiverse user embeddedjunkie's "Robotic Hand" model to use as a prosthesis model and some custom parts for hand tracking - are printed out and ready for assembly. These parts will be modified to attach the buttons and a better fit.