Body-Powered and Portable Soft Hydraulic Actuators as Prosthetic Hands

Powered prosthetic hands in very young children.

Myoelectric prostheses are generally not provided in the United Kingdom for children before the age of 3 1/2 years. Following the introduction of a smaller sized electric hand in the United Kingdom in 1993 the authors decided to introduce electrically powered hands for a group of congenital upper limb deficient children at a much younger age compared to normal practice. Eleven children were int...

Quiet Hydraulic Actuators for LIGO

Interferometric gravitational wave detection relies on precisely monitoring the distance between the test masses at the end of each arm which, conveniently, also serve as the end mirrors of the interferometer. For terrestrial detectors, this measurement is corrupted by seismic noise that is several orders of magnitude larger than the anticipated gravitational wave induced motion [1]. To reduce ...

Cineplasty as a control input for externally powered prosthetic components.

To achieve significant improvement in the function of electric-powered, upper-limb prostheses, we believe it is necessary to develop better control interfaces with inherent sensory feedback. Small cineplasties, or other surgical procedures that also externalize the force and excursion of a muscle, could potentially provide this superior control. Connecting a muscle to a prosthetic component via...

Modeling and Control of Hydraulic Rotary Actuators

The steps for modeling and control of a hydraulic rotary actuator are discussed. Our aim is to present experimental results working with a particular sensing device for angular position as a complement to pressure sensing devices. We provide the steps in experimental system identification used for modeling the system dynamics. The cascade controller designed contains an inner loop for an accura...

Polypyrrole Soft Actuators