Electro-pneumatic Control of Soft Robotic Hand Prosthesis Actuators

Abstract

This project arises in response to some limitations of the current conventional prostheses, namely aesthetic, mechanical and cost, that fail to fulfil the needs of its users, for example with soft objects. The results obtained until now proved to be satisfactory in the approximation of the hand morphology, low cost and the designed mechanical properties. However, this paper aims to present a developed electro-pneumatic control board to control the soft robotic prosthesis of the human hand. The first tests done with this control board show that it will be necessary to improve the physical design and the 3D printing of the soft actuators (fingers) due to some leaks in the printed actuators.