Hello,
Thank you to everyone who responded to my question. Below are the answers I
received.
I just cut and pasted the answers without any editing on my part. I only
removed the contributors contact info.
Greg Fronczak, MBA
Advanced Biomedica
I think the Michelangelo is more durable and the off the shelf glove is
very cosmetic.
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The cons are expense, unless workman’s comp or private pay, you may not get
reimbursed enough. You also have to bring your patient to
Minneapolisfor Michelangelo even if you do a lot of myos. BeBionic
more affordable but not as durable as ILimb.
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at MEC two years ago there was a paper comparing bebionic and the iLimb, I
don’t think it included the Michalangelo – the papers were suppose to be
available on the open prosthetics project web site.
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I must admit that while working for Ottobock that I am somewhat biased, but
I have actually used both hands. In short the biggest difference is the
dynamic control of the thumb vs. multiarticular digital control. The
Michelangelo can switch from oppositional grip to lateral grip dynamically
whereas the I-limb is a passive control. The I-Limb gives you up to 8
articular finger positions that you can program, but most patients can only
remember two or three. The dynamic nature of the Michelangelo seems to
increase the use of multiple grip patters.
The Michelangelo is faster at 325 mm/s to the I-Limb 217 mm/s which is
quite a bit slower. Although the I-limb Pulse can give you up to 22.5-30.5
lbs of grip force they pulse the motor which is much slower. This is
because it pulses the voltage to the hand motor, just below the threshold
where it overheats to increase the grip force. Normally the grip force is
about 4.7-7.7 lbs. Michelangelo gives you 100N or 22.5 lbs in Opposition
and 70N or 15.7 lbs in Lateral Prehension as well as offer a neutral mode.
Also Michelangelo give you 8 different wrist positions, but most people use
the adaptive portion of the wrist to allow free adaptive motion. The
connection and battery system are also quite innovative in that it will
allow up to 8 different inputs. The battery is an 11.1 v Lithium Ion system
or a 7.4 smaller pack. The Michelangelo uses Bluetooth connection to make
all the changes.
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have fit a few of each of these in addition to the BeBionic hand which I
think is very comparable to the iLimb. There are many differences between
each three of these hands. I put the iLimb and the BeBionic hand in the
same group since the motion of the fingers is only MCP flexion and
extension, compared to the Michelangelo which abducts the digits as it
extends the MCP joints and adducts the digits with flexion. This offers
several benefits to the user such as the ability to grasp objects between
the fingers. The biggest difference with the MA hand is that it has a
motorized thumb which the user can switch between a lateral and
oppositional grasp. The other two hands require passive positioning of the
thumb with the opposite hand to switch between these grasps. An advantage
of the iLimb and BeBionic is that the coaxial wrist unit is compatible with
other myo electronic terminal devices should the user need to switch
between them, such as a Griefer or ETD. There are many more differences
between these hands, more then I would like to write in an email, and if
you wish I can discuss these further with you in a phone call.
On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Johnnyfronz
> Does anyone have experience working with both of these hands? What would
> you say the pros and cons of one versus the other.
>
> Thanks Greg
>
