I think anyone who's not looking with an expert eye would find it difficult to spot that it's an artificial hand."Ībout a dozen labs worldwide are working on improvements to the myoelectric prosthetic, with some focusing on touch and others on improving how the nervous system communicates with the prosthetic.
"Driving, for example, is not a problem," said Zambelli, 64, who has also learned to use a table knife. A video presentation shows him doing a variety of tasks, including removing bills from an automated teller machine, grasping a pencil and driving a stick-shift car. He lost his hand in a work accident when he was a teenager, and has used a variety of prosthetics over the years. Italian retiree Marco Zambelli has been testing the Hennes hand for the last three years. In the United States, many amputees prefer the much simpler hook prosthetic, which attaches by a shoulder harness, because it allows them to continue to operate heavy equipment, Jayaraman said. Italian researchers say the Hennes weighs about the same as a human hand. They plan to bring it to market in Europe next year with a target price of around 10,000 euros ($11,900), about 30 percent below current market prices.Īrun Jayaraman, a robotic prosthetic researcher at the Shirley Ryan Ability lab, in Chicago, said the lighter design could help overcome some amputees' resistance to the myoelectric hands, which to date have been too heavy for some. "This can be considered low cost because we reduce to the minimum the mechanical complexity to achieve, at the same time, a very effective grasp, and a very effective behavior of the prosthesis," De Michieli said. The Hennes has only one motor to control all five fingers, making it lighter, cheaper and more able to adapt to the shape of objects. He helped develop the hand in a lab backed by the Italian Institute of Technology and the INAIL state workers' compensation prosthetic center. The Hennes robotic hand has a simpler mechanical design than other such myoelectric prosthetics, which are characterized by sensors that react to electrical signals from the brain to the muscles, said researcher Lorenzo De Michieli.
ROME - Italian researchers on Thursday unveiled a robotic hand they say allows users to grip objects more naturally and features a design that will lower the price significantly.
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