.

Editorial
IRCC Notes


In Brief
Consultancy Projects
Sponsored Projects
MOUs
Awards

Technologies & Products
Artificial Hand
Automatic Address
    Segmentation

3-in-1 Heat Pump
Keyboard-Text Input
    Indian Languages

Seminars at IRCC

Articles By
S. Kotha

Narayan Rangaraj

Sandip Roy
Kushal Deb
Karuna Jain
Prema Prakash

Board of Governors
Archives

Weblinks
Team / Contact



The incidence of limb loss due to road accidents, and unsafe handling of machinery is fairly high in India. Loss of the hand may be below the wrist, the forearm, or in the upper arm; a loss at the shoulder results in the greatest loss of function of the hand. An 'artificial hand' can help restore a measure of normalcy to the injured. One of the options for obtaining a man-made replacement for a lost hand is an internally-powered motorized hand that can perform finger-like pincer movements. The control of such a hand is usually achieved by bioelectric signals picked up from muscles in the residual limb. The costs of such imported motorized hands, however, are prohibitive - it can be more than Rs. 3.00 lakhs.

With funding from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (1999), a team of three researchers from IITB and the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, have developed the first successful, indigenous, motorized artificial hand that would cost less than Rs 10,000. The motorized hand has several user-friendly features including myoelectric and whistle controllers. A single motor helps the co-ordinated movement of the fingers and thumb, while another motor turns the hand at the forearm. The motors are operated by switches placed in the socket of the artificial hand. The bulging of the muscles and the slight movement in the residual limb of the amputee are used to control these switches. Apart from its lower cost, the advantage that the indigenously developed product has over imported ones is that it works better in humid climates.

Following preliminary tests at the All India Institute for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mumbai, an initial set of artificial hands fabricated by WORTH (Workshop for Rehabilitation and Training of the Handicapped) Trust, Tamilnadu, was subjected to extended clinical trials at CMC-Vellore. Improvements including miniaturization of the electronics, and placement of control switches inside the socket were made based on further studies and user feedback. Sizes appropriate for both young children and adults are available. Commercial manufacture of the artificial hand is underway, and a project for extended clinical evaluation for further enhancements and improvements is in progress.

Contact: Prof S Devasahayam, surdev@cmcvellore.ac.in, R Lal, rlal@ee.iitb.ac.in P C Pandey, pcpandey@ee.iitb.ac.in

 

Home | Top