A Transradial Prosthesis with a High-Functional Wrist for Various Daily Living Task

About 41,000 upper limb amputees in the US often face challenges in performing activities of daily living (ADL) that require the assistance of prostheses. Recently, various upper limb prosthetic hands are suggested to have higher complexity and degree of freedom, while the prosthetic wrist remains passive or has only one active degree of freedom. Such designs can lead to higher compensatory unnatural motion, which can lead to pain and discomfort of the residual limb. Having a higher degree of freedom wrist can significantly reduce unnecessary compensatory motion and overuse of the intact side of the limb as well. The UBArm is designed for a three-degree of freedom wrist and one-degree of freedom hand. It can actuate all three wrist motions including pronation/supination, radial/ulnar deviation, and flexion/extension. We envision highly functional wrist of UBArm with lighter weight can provide better support to ADLs of amputees and reduce unnatural motion to maximize comfort.