Implementation and Evaluation of a Hand Prosthesis Focused on Grasping Tasks through Low-Cost Additive Printing

In developing countries, prosthetic technology is limited, difficult to access or even non-existent. Especially, the fabrication and production of active, multi-articulated and customized prosthetic hands is often considered a timeconsuming and demanding process. An active prosthetic hand fabricated using additive printing modeling technology will increase the accessibility of prosthetic devices by reducing fabrication costs. In this research, an approach is developed for the production of active prosthetic hands that could be fabricated using additive print modeling technology. Different design considerations for the additive manufacturing of the mechanisms of a hand prosthesis have been proposed and the grip performance has been evaluated through standardized tests. As a result, it has been possible to obtain a prosthetic hand that can be 3D printed at a low cost and is able to perform different types of gripping achieving an effectiveness of 91%.