The brand new air-powered hand provides a light-weight, low-maintenance and easy-to-use body-powered prosthetic option particularly well suited for kids and people in low and middle-income countries.
A revolutionary recent hand prosthesis powered and controlled by the user’s respiratory has been developed by researchers on the University of Oxford.
The straightforward lightweight device offers an alternative choice to Bowden cable-driven body-powered prosthetics initially developed within the early nineteenth century – particularly for those too young or anatomically unsuited to an uncomfortable harness and cable system.
Our breathing-powered device provides a novel prosthetic option that might be used without limiting any of the user’s body movements. It’s one in every of the first truly recent design approaches for power and control of a body-powered prosthetic because the emergence of the cable-driven system over two centuries ago.”
Jeroen Bergmann, Senior Writer Professor, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford
Although several different prosthetic options exist (suitability depending on the extent of upper limb difference amongst other aspects) little progress has been made in developing recent approaches to power and control of body-powered devices compared to stylish externally powered prosthetics.
Essentially the most widely used functional upper-limb prosthesis stays the cable-driven body-powered system – which might be prohibitively expensive to own and maintain in low-resource settings due to costs related to the obligatory skilled fitting and maintenance.
The brand new approach, published within the journal Prosthesis, provides another body-powered device for users in situations where cost, maintenance, comfort and ease of use are primary considerations.
By regulating their respiratory, users power a small purpose-built Tesla turbine that may accurately control the prosthetic finger movements. The quantity of air needed to power the unit might be achieved by young children and the gearing within the unit determines the speed of the grasping motion.
Cable and harness free, the device is lightweight and suitable for kids and adolescents who’re still growing. Minimal maintenance and training are needed for ease of use compared to other prosthetic options.
The researchers have been working with LimbBo, a number one UK-based charity for kids with limb differences, to develop and refine the device.
Jane Hewitt, Trustee of LimbBo, said: ‘One in all our goals at The LimbBo Foundation is to make sure that all our kids have access to any devices which is able to aid their day-to-day lives. No two limb differences are the identical and what’s going to help one child won’t be suitable for one more. Currently, there’s some selection available regarding prosthetics but there are still children who need a very different approach. For a lot of, their lack of an elbow joint severely limits their access to prosthetic devices and so we welcomed the prospect to be involved with Professor Jeroen Bergmann to take a look at different approaches. That is an exciting development for a lot of our kids.’
She added: ‘We welcome this research as a very different approach to enabling our kids to have the assistance that a prosthetic similar to this may give them. The element of selection is vital, and we’d fully support any research and development plans that enable this. We feel that by including us in discussions the team in Oxford really do want the very best for our kids.’
A spokesperson from Mobility India, an NGO based in Bengaluru, India working with the researchers on user testing said: ‘The breathing-powered prosthetic (Airbender) has the potential to broaden prosthetic options for kids and adolescents, especially in India and other developing countries that lack appropriate technology.’
First writer Dr Vikranth H. Nagaraja, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford said: ‘Over 40 million individuals worldwide are estimated to have limb differences – most with no access to any type of prosthetic care. Besides, upper-limb prosthetics currently available to patients are sometimes neither reasonably priced nor appropriate, especially in low-resource settings. We hope our research represents a step-change in making prosthetics more widely accessible and helping overcome challenges with current options.’
Source:
Journal reference:
Nagaraja, V.H., et al. (2022) Reimagining Prosthetic Control: A Novel Body-Powered Prosthetic System for Simultaneous Control and Actuation. Prosthesis. doi.org/10.3390/prosthesis4030032.