Design Criteria

Design Criteria 1: Durable and Lightweight Prosthesis
  • Capable of handling large amounts of active movement since the prosthesis is used for athletes in volleyball.
  • Made out of materials that have high durability and is lightweight.​ [8]
  • Resolves the limitations of the current treatment:
    • Passive Prosthesis – Not capable of active movement.​ [9]
    • Battery Powered Prosthesis – Likely to break in response to active movement and is very heavy. ​[10]
Design Criteria 2: Cheaper Prosthesis
  • Should be widely available to amputees of all economic classes.
  • Current treatments are expensive to purchase and maintain. [11]
  • Should be made out of materials that are more inexpensive, more affordable. [8]
  • Resolves the limitations of the passive prosthesis, body powered prosthesis and battery powered prosthesis:
    • Expensive due to its components.​ [10]

Design Criteria 3: Improve Control
  • Embed surface EMG sensors on the prosthesis and surrounding muscles to detect movement. [12]
  • A microcontroller would receive the signals from the electrodes in the limb and filter the noise to maintain efficiency. [13]
  • Place force-sensing resistors(FSRs) in the fingertip and palm area to make contact more likely when making various moves such as catching the ball.[14]
  • Surface EMG sensors improve the functionality and make the prosthetic cost-effective to suit the volleyball player’s requirements while staying non-invasive.[12]

 

 

 

 

Citations:

[8] Gonzalez, Carlos. “New Technology Provides Lighter and Cheaper Prosthetics.” MachineDesign, www.machinedesign.com/mechanical-motion-systems/article/21836796/new-technology-provides-lighter-and-cheaper-prosthetics.

[9] National Academies of Sciences, E., and Medicine (2017, May 9). “Upper-Extremity Prostheses – The Promise of Assistive Technology to Enhance Activity and Work Participation – NCBI Bookshelf.”. Retrieved 10/07/2020, 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK453290/.

[10] Esquenazi, A. (2014, September 20). “Upper limb prosthetics.” Retrieved 10/07, 2020, from https://now.aapmr.org/upper-limb-prosthetics/.

[11] Vandersea, J. (2020). “Arm & Hand Prosthetics.” Retrieved 11/28, 2020, from https://mcopro.com/blog/resources/arm-hand-prosthetics/#introduction-section.

[12] Lei, M. and Z.Z. Wang, [The study advances and prospects of processing surface EMG signal in prosthesis control]. Zhongguo Yi Liao Qi Xie Za Zhi, 2001. 25(3): p. 156-60.

[13] Nikonovas, A., et al., The application of force-sensing resistor sensors for measuring forces developed by the human hand. Proc Inst Mech Eng H, 2004. 218(2): p. 121-6.

[14]Prakash, A., S. Sharma, and N. Sharma, A compact-sized surface EMG sensor for myoelectric hand prosthesis. Biomed Eng Lett, 2019. 9(4): p. 467-479.