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Prosthetic hand knows exactly how hard it can safely squeeze stuff | Researchers have come up with a better prosthetic hand that uses a hybrid design and a complex sensor system to carefully grip various objects with just the right amount of pressure.


Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have come up with a better prosthetic hand that uses a hybrid design to carefully grip various objects with just the right amount of pressure.

The robotic appendage combines rigid and soft components to mimic the natural structure of the human hand, as well as a range of sensors and a system to deliver feedback to the user's nerves. "We want to give people with upper-limb loss the ability to safely and freely interact with their environment, to feel and hold their loved ones without concern of hurting them," explained Sriramana Sankar, a biomedical engineering PhD student who led the research project. Our system is neurally inspired – it models the hand's touch receptors to produce nerve-like messages so the prosthetics' 'brain,' or its computer, understands if something is hot or cold, soft or hard, or slipping from the grip."

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