Prosthetic hand project part of £5.3M healthcare investment

Next generation assistive technology will incorporate sensory feedback in addition to motor control to enable a more natural prosthesis

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council recently announced its £5.3 Million investment in three healthcare tech research projects

The three projects involve the development of soft robotic clothing to assist people with mobility impairments, disposable bio-sensors to help those who require rehabilitation in wheelchairs and prosthetics, and the development of a prosthetic hand giving users a realistic sense of touch, which is led by the University of Newcastle and involves the universities of Leeds, Essex, Keele, Southampton, and Dr Tim Constandinou’s team in the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology, part of the Electrical and Electronic Department at Imperial College London.

The prosthetic hand project has been awarded £1.4M and will see the teams build fingertip sensors allowing users to sense pressure, temperature and forces across it. A ‘virtual hand’ will provide information on the sense of the hand’s position and movement, and the system will translate the signals to a form the brain can understand, and stimulate the nervous system to help the user control the hand.

Dr Constandinou says: "A significant limitation in current prosthetic limbs is their inability to “feel”. Even devices that are controlled through thought, require users to continuously look at their prosthetic in order to do everyday tasks. What is missing here is the sensory feedback, for example: touch and proprioception.

This award will allow us to develop new technologies to address this in the context of a prosthetic hand. Working in collaboration with the universities of Newcastle, Leeds, Keele, Southampton and Essex, we’ll develop and test new fingertip sensors, processing algorithms and nerve interfaces to provide natural control. Our role at Imperial is to develop the electronic neural interface that will directly communicate with the nervous system.”