A Shape Memory Alloy Actuated Anthropomorphic Prosthetic Hand: Initial Experiments
A Shape Memory Alloy Actuated Anthropomorphic Prosthetic Hand: Initial Experiments
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long lengths of wire for large strains sufficient to flex the fingers. and SMA artificial muscle wires. The cables from the hand
The challenge is to use design strategies to overcome these module are mechanically coupled to the actuator system module.
drawbacks. The fingers are flexed by heating and thus contracting the SMA
Among the most notable prosthetic hands in the literature are the wires and are passively extended by the torsion springs within the
following: In 2001, Schultz presented a very lightweight artificial joints when the SMA wires cool down. The main design
hand driven by a powerful small size flexible fluidic actuator requirements of the actuator system are (a) sufficient SMA wire
[10]. The Rutgers hand was developed in 2002 [2, 5, 11]. This is contraction to fully flex the fingers, (b) sufficient grasping force
a five fingered hand where each finger has two artificial muscle (c) fast response time of finger flexion and (d) fast cooling of the
bundles one for flexion and the other for the recovery force. SMA wires (recovery time) for relaxation and (e) appropriate bias
Carozza et al developed the Spring hand in 2004 [12]. This is a force.
three fingered hand actuated by cables and a motor. In 2007, a The SMA wires used in this work are Flexinol® wires (Dynalloy
four fingered hand actuated by SMA wires was presented where Inc.). The design parameters of the actuator include the diameter
the SMA wires are embedded within the hand structure for and length of the wires as well as the number of wires to control
compactness [8]. In 2009, Zajdlik presented a five-fingered motor total output force. Parameter selection was based on system
driven prosthetic hand [13]. requirements.
The cable excursion needed to cause full flexion of the fingers
was measured and found to be approximately 10 mm. This
3. MATERIALS AND METHODS
dictated the required SMA contraction. Since the SMA wires
have a strain of up to 4% when appropriately prestressed with a
The upper limb prosthesis currently being developed consists of bias force, a total length of 25 cm was used.
an anthropomorphic mechanical hand, SMA actuators, a driving Regarding the grasping force and speed of recovery, the diameter
circuit for the SMAs, surface EMG electrodes for signal of the wires determines the force according to the manufacturer: a
acquisition and a microcontroller for EMG signal processing and 0.006” (150 Pm) diameter wire can lift up to 330 gm while a
control of the prosthesis. 0.012” wire (300 Pm) diameter wire can lift up to 1250 gm [3].
A prototype of the anthropomorphic hand has already been However the drawback of using thicker wires is their longer
implemented and is described in detail in [14]. It consists of a cooling time. Since the wires are cooled by the ambient
palm unit to which 2 fingers and the thumb are attached. The temperature, thinner wires have a larger surface to volume ratio
mechanical structure of each finger consists of 3 phalanges and
and cool down faster. The cooling time for a 150 Pm diameter
the thumb consists of 2 phalanges. The joints between them are
wire is 1.2 sec while that for a 300 Pm diameter wire is 6 sec [3].
articulated with single degree of freedom (DOF) hinge joints.
The contraction time for both is 1 sec. Based on these numbers it
There is a pin spanning the width of each joint, and a torsion
spring in each joint to passively extend the fingers and open the was decided to use the 150 Pm wire since 6 sec is too long for the
hand as shown in Figure (1). The spring also provides the bias recovery time. A single wire of this diameter can lift 330 g which
force needed for the SMA wires to function. is not sufficient for full hand flexion. In order to increase the
force of the actuator, a bundle of SMA wires was used. It consists
of eight wires connected mechanically in parallel in a circular
arrangement to produce a uniformly distributed force. This
bundle can theoretically lift up to 2.6 kg. The bundle, shown in
Figure (2), was constructed by crimping the stretched wires at
each end between two circular insulated discs of diameter 4 cm.
One disc is fixed at the end of a steel rod while the other disc, at a
Figure 1. Two phalanges of thumb showing torsion spring distance 25 cm away, is free to slide relative to the rod as the
placement wires contract. The free disc is then mechanically coupled to the
hand cables causing it to actuate (flex) the fingers. The bundle
Each finger is flexed using only one inextensible cable passing was fixed on a test bed with a slider guiding system for the
through channels within the finger structure. In order to obtain moving disc as shown in Figure (2). This allows smooth linear
maximum joint rotation (flexion) with the small strains provided motion.
by the SMA wires, the cables were attached to the distal phalanx
very close to the center of rotation of the distal interphalangeal
joint (DIP). The cables then pass through the hollow palm
structure to exit at the wrist level of the hand. This represents the
end of the hand module. The cables are then connected to the
SMA actuator system which provides the required finger flexion
force in response to the control input. The actuation system and
the driving control circuit will be described in the following
sections.
Figure 2. SMA bundle actuator
3.1. Actuation System The bias force needed per 150 Pm wire is from 7 – 10 Ksi [3].
This is equivalent to 0.85 – 1.218 N per wire resulting in a 6.8 –
An actuation system was designed, implemented and tested with 9.7 N total bias force requirement for the bundle. This is achieved
the hand prototype. Actuation of the fingers was achieved by adjusting the initial attachment of the hand module to the
through a combination of springs, inextensible cables (tendons)
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bundle module so that the finger joints are initially flexed at 20o. wire, followed by 0.13 sec of relaxation before the cycle is
This gives a force per torsion spring of repeated [15].
To assess the performance of the system, an experimental setup
F = K x Deg / M (1) was designed and constructed. The experimental setup consisted
of 4 main parts – the SMA bundle, the power supply, the driving
Where K is the spring constant, Deg is the spring arm deflection circuit and the load which provides the bias force needed for the
relative to the unloaded position (where the spring arms are in wires to contract. The first experiments were open loop
line) and M is the spring arm length. experiments where the load was provided by a dead weight of 1
kg. The system was actuated by the driving circuit described
above. Displacement and cooling time were measured. The
3.2. Driving circuit:
second experiments were conducted with the system
A driving and control system was designed and implemented to mechanically coupled to the prosthetic hand. In this case the bias
control the prosthesis. The design considerations here include force was provided by the initial deflection of the torsion springs
power requirements, avoiding overheating of the SMA wires, fast within the fingers as described above. The following results were
response time and electrical safety. The SMA bundle used in this recorded: Response time = 0.5 sec, full flexion time = 2 sec and
prototype has 8 wires with equal diameters of 150 Pm and 25 cm full extension time = 4 sec.
length. The specifications of the SMA wires are that the
resistance of the 150 Pm wire is 0.5 ohm/cm and the wires need a 5. DISCUSSION
current of 400 mAmp for activation [3]. Since the 8 wires are
connected mechanically and electrically in parallel, this results in There are several types of actuators, each with its own particular
a total current requirement of 3.2 Amp and a total resistance of features; however, to meet the constructive and functional needs
1.7 ohm. The total power requirement is thus about 17.5 watts. required of prostheses, they should generally be lightweight, be
The SMA driving circuit is a 555 timer that is enabled by the small in size, consume little energy, have a high torque, operate
microcontroller output. The microcontroller gives the signal to silently, generate a minimum of heat, offer fast response, and be
either open or close the hand. The 555 timer outputs a 5.5 V as easy to control [1]. The choice of SMA actuators rather than
square pulses with the specified frequency. These pulses are input conventional motors in the current work is based on their many
to the push pull driver L293B which is necessary to deliver the advantages. SMA wires have a small size and weight, a high
required current with the same voltage frequency to the SMA force to weight ratio, silent operation in addition to the lower
bundle. The power supply for bundle actuation was a 6 Amp DC cost. However, using SMAs requires careful design since, in
power source. addition to their slow recovery time and small strains, their
material has non-linear properties in each respect and standard
4. RESULTS figures such as Young’s Modulus or Shear Modulus do not make
sense [6].
In the proposed design, the springs are embedded within the
The SMA bundle actuator and it’s driving and control citcuitry
finger joints and have a dual role. In addition to providing the
were implemented. The system was tested in open loop
bias force needed for SMA operation, they also cause finger
experiments then effectively used to close and open the
extension as opposed to the push-pull activation where two
articulated hand prototype.
opposing cables and SMA wires are used for flexion and
Before making the choice of the 150 Pm diameter SMA wire,
extension as in [5, 11, 17]. This design has the advantage of
wires of various diameters were actuated and tested. On small
providing actuation with a fewer number of cables and separate
diameter wires (<=150 Pm diameter) currents which heat the wire SMA wires thus requiring a simpler control scheme with fewer
in 1 second can typically be left on without overheating, so this control inputs as well as less power consumption. It is also more
diameter is the maximum diameter which does not over heat. compact than using external springs for the bias force as
A Solartron LVDT sensor interfacing with Matlab using the previously proposed [17].
K8055 interface board was used to test the effect of different Selection of wire diameter was dictated by the constraint of
input signals (DC and square pulses) on raising the temperature cooling time. Since the SMA wires are cooled by the ambient air,
of the wires to ensure the 4 % contraction. At the same time the thinner wires have a larger surface to volume ratio and cool down
temperature was monitored using an LM35 temperature sensor.
faster. However the selection of small diameter wires (150 Pm)
The force produced by one SMA wire was found to range
was at the expense of a small force per wire. This drawback was
between 320 g and 330 g and was not sufficient for full flexion of
solved by using a bundle of parallel wires. The use of an SMA
the hand. In order to increase the force of the actuator, an 8 wire
bundle to increase force has been previously proposed [8, 16].
bundle of parallel SMA wires was constructed.
However the bundle used in this work has fewer wires than [16]
In the driving circuit, the output of the 555 timer was used as an
and they are connected mechanically as well as electrically in
input to quad push-pull drivers capable of delivering output
parallel. The SMA wires are further apart allowing increased air
currents of 1 Amp per channel to drive the SMA bundle directly.
circulation and thus faster cooling time. In addition, the bundle
When activated, the circuit provides an output voltage oscillating
used here is heated by square pulses from the driving circuit.
between 0 and 5.3V, with a duty cycle of 71% at a frequency of
With this input, ample time is given to allow the SMA wire to
2.3 Hz. This frequency was selected to have a good frequency
cool down a little before being heated up again. This prevents it
response to transfer function [7]. This means that for every cycle
from overheating, thus prolonging its useful lifetime. The duty
of the oscillation, 0.31 sec is utilized to generate heat in the SMA
cycle of 71% coupled with the short cycle time of oscillation
(0.44 s) provides the bundle with a steady grip without any
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jerking effect [15]. The bundle presented in [9] was designed and [6]. M. Mertmann and G. Vergani, “Design and application
tested only for vertical operation where gravitational loads were of shape memory actuators”, Eur. Phys. J. Special
used as the bias force for the SMA wires whereas the bundle Topics, vol. 158, pp 221–230, May 2008.
presented in this work was tested and worked in any orientation [7]. Y. Teh and R. Featherstone, “Frequency response
since the bias force is provided by the finger joint torsion springs. analysis of shape memory alloy actuators”, Int Conf
The bundle excursion of 10 mm provided by the 25 cm long Smart Materials and Nanotechnology, China, July
SMA wires was found to be sufficient to fully flex the fingers. 2007.
However the long length of the actuator is not practical. Compact [8]. K. T. O'Toole and M. M. McGrath, "Mechanical design
commercial SMA actuators [Miga Motors] solve this problem and theoretical analysis of a four fingered prosthetic
and can be bundled and heated with the same driving circuit. hand incorporating embedded SMA bundle actuators,"
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were found to have a limited stroke and an unacceptable finger Sciences, vol. 1, pp. 83-90, 2008.
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6. CONCLUSION
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