Easy Sense Of Touch For Prosthesis Users

Description

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.

Files

prosthesis.ino

The main code of the project

ino - 1.46 kB - 09/03/2017 at 11:02

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Components

1 × Atmega328p Microprocessors, Microcontrollers, DSPs / ARM, RISC-Based Microcontrollers

5 × Touch Sensor / Button

5 × Micro Servo

Project Logs

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Code
Oğuz Salar • 09/03/2017 at 11:50 • 0 comments

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.
Parts Assambled
Oğuz Salar • 09/03/2017 at 11:48 • 0 comments

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.
Electronics
Oğuz Salar • 09/03/2017 at 11:18 • 0 comments

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.
3D Printed Parts
Oğuz Salar • 09/03/2017 at 10:15 • 0 comments

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.

View all 4 project logs

Build Instructions

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Modifying the already existing prosthesis

Modify the user's choice of prosthesis to house the touch sensors of the buttons on the fingertips.

Main elecronics

Assemble the the main elecronics consisting of a microcontroller and the pinout required to attach the servo array and sensors.

The servo array

Manifacture a comfortable enough servo array to be attached to the user's arm for daily use.

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Easy Sense Of Touch For Prosthesis Users

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Description

Files

prosthesis.ino

Components

Project Logs Collapse

Code

Parts Assambled

Electronics

3D Printed Parts

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Build Instructions

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