IIT Scientists Are Working On A Robotic Hand For Paralytics

IIT Kanpur scientists have been working on developing the first-ever robotic hand for stroke patients’ rehabilitation and have finished testing it.

The device is an exoskeleton or a robotic hand with two fingers which has a four-bar mechanism as well as a degree of freedom (DOF) of four.

Professor K S Venkatesh and Professor Ashish Dutta who were the inventors of the device said:

The exoskeleton runs on a battery and is operated by a 300-Mhz MEGA microcontroller. And its price is going to be around Rs 15,000.

For the development of the exoskeleton, the two scientists have worked with the UK-based University of Ulster and their professor Girijesh Prasad who is from Gorakhpur.

The device’s sensors help it control the fingertip’s pressure of the patient. The device will follow the patient’s movement passively if they close or move their fingers. If not, the device will actively force the fingers to close and use signals to follow BCI instructions.

In terms of the device’s design, the exoskeleton’s DOF movement is based on the human fingers’ movement when they manipulating a coin. The device’s joints have four bars in order to mimic a human movement.

The exoskeleton is actually RS 55 lakh project of the Ministry of Human Resource Department (MHRD) and the UK’s British Council. The project was first approved back in 2018.

The research detailing the device can be found in many leading journals which include Haptics and Engineering in the Medical and Biology Society, Biomedical and Health Informatics and the Journal of Neuroscience Methods.