Robotic Arm for Teenage Amputees. Yash R. Vaidya, Prof. Preethika Britto. Department of Biomedical Engineering. VIT University, Vellore, India. yashvaidya9@gmail.com Abstract-Over the years there has been an increase in the number of teenagers with a deficient upper limb, due to vascular diseases or road traffic accidents. The Stanford University estimates around 2.5 million such amputees in the world currently. By 2050 it shall reach to about 3.5 million. The activities of daily living of these individuals are affected due to the loss of a limb, this hinders their efficiency. Intricate hand movements and the functions are compromised in these amputees. This project develops a robotic arm specifically targeting the teenage upper limb amputees. …show more content…
The individual is thus incapable of performing basic functions. There is little reliable data on the upper limb amputation in India. But the pie chart below helps us understand the current status of amputees in India. The traumatic incidents are 47.7% which occur maximum in teenagers of adults. There is little that the current research in India is doing for such teenage amputees. These amputees need to be given an alternative to do perform the normal functions in day-to-day life. Fig1. Causes of Amputation. II. EXISTING SOLUTIONS The prevailing solutions are for age groups above 30. The various kinds of robotic hands present are extremely expensive and not light weighted. This is a major disadvantage since it cannot be worn by the teenagers since they cannot bear so much weight on one side of the body. Fig2. Robotic Hand developed in USA. Fig2. shows an old amputee with a robotic hand. This is developed in USA. There are no such light weight robotic hands available in India for old men and for teenagers. There is a lot of research to be done in India for the robotic hands for the teenage amputees. The available ones are not suitable for the teenagers. III. LITERATURE …show more content…
It has sensors/electrodes worn over the amputated hand which sensed the EMG signals of the amputee. When the amputee tries to hold an object, the muscles on the arm produce EMG signals that are amplified by an EMG amplifier and sent to the microcontroller which in turn causes the Robotic hand to move. Similarly the opposite movement can be performed by relaxing the muscles that change the EMG signal. This was made in