Creative mechanism design for a prosthetic hand.

In this paper, an auxiliary methodology called the creative mechanism design is introduced into the innovation of gripping devices for prosthetic hands. This methodology is a systematic approach based on modification of existing devices for the generation of all possible topological structures of mechanisms and mechanical devices. An existing gripping device (Teh Lin ATG-5F prosthetic hand) constructed by a planar six-bar linkage with one degree of freedom is dealt with by using this methodology. Through the processes of generalization, number synthesis, specialization and particularization for the existing design, five new mechanisms are created in this study to apply to anthropomorphic prosthetic hands. The results show that the methodology for creative mechanism design is a powerful tool for creating new categories of mechanisms to avoid existing designs that have patent protection and can help designers in the conceptual phase. Also, this methodology is validated as a useful way to improve prosthetic hands for amputees.