Major Gains Still to Be Made in Quality of Arm Prostheses From: Medcial Design Technology - 02/27/2017 "In many ways, a body-powered prosthesis is better than a myoelectric version", explains doctoral candidate Mona Hichert. "This was demonstrated, for example, last year during the CYBATHLON competition in Zurich. In the Powered Arm Prosthesis Race, people carried out everyday activities using a prosthetic arm. A student team from Delft was the only team to participate using a body-powered prosthesis, and easily won from the big commercial teams." Body-powered prostheses are also lighter, cheaper and more reliable, while they also offer the user feedback regarding the movements of the gripping mechanism and the grip force exerted on objects. "Unfortunately, approximately half of the users are so dissatisfied with their body-powered prosthesis that they avoid actively using it. Existing prostheses require a lot of strength to use them, which can result in pain and fatigue during or after use. Users also complain about the comfort and appearance of the shoulder strap. To cut to the chase: these prostheses need to be improved." Read the entire article at: https://www.mdtmag.com/news/2017/02/major-gains-still-be-made-quality-arm-prostheses http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/latest-news/article/detail/nog-veel-te-winnen-bij-kwaliteit-van-armprotheses-1 Links: Mona Hichert http://www.delfthapticslab.nl/cpt_people/mona-hichert TU Delft team wins arm prosthesis race Cybathlon Zurich http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/latest-news/article/detail/team-tu-delft-winnaar-armprotheserace-cybathlon-zurich Delft Cylinder hand, Grasping patterns (video 1:02) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH586e-9UfM