An Ecuadorian subject tests the Psyonic hand. Photograph courtesy of ROMP.
The Range of Motion Project (ROMP) arranged for a low-cost, 3D-printed myoelectric-controlled hand with sensory feedback to be tested in Ecuador by several of the patients served by ROMP. The device, called the Psyonic hand, allows the user to form different hand grasps and offers a sense of touch and pressure.
“This is an affordable design that will quickly become available to all of the world’s amputees. There are 2.4 million arm amputees in the worldwide. Most of them do not have access to any sort of prosthetic care, let alone advanced bionic systems,” said ROMP cofounder David Krupa, CP.
The current field trial arranged for Ecuadorian upper-limb amputees to participate in clinical tests and provide direct user feedback. Psyonic engineers used ROMP’s on-site 3D printer lab to fabricate and make immediate improvements to the product’s design. These events are also the subject of a feature-length documentary that will highlight ROMP and Aadeel Akhtar, a medical and doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who developed the hand along with Patrick Slade, a mechanical engineering student at the same university.
