Mechatronic Hands

This book describes the technical design characteristics of the main components that go into forming an artificial hand, whether it is a simple design that does not have a natural appearance, or a more complicated design where there are multiple movements of the fingers and thumb. Mechanical components obviously form the structure of any hand, while there are some lesser known ideas that need to be explored such as how to process a slip signal. The focus of the book is the design of artificial hands for people, who through trauma or congenitally, only have one or no natural hands, with an emphasis on myolectric hands - powered hands that are controlled by the small electrical signals from residual muscles. An in-depth treatment of mechanisms, sensors, control, and hand assessment is included. Bringing together decades of research from the University of Southampton - a centre of excellence in this field - this book is essential reading for researchers and advanced students of robotics, prosthetics and mechatronics as well as professional engineers and prosthetists in universities, industry and hospitals who are involved in the design and manufacture of prosthetic hands.