Design and Control of a Bionic Prosthetic Hand

Grasp control is one of the challenging tasks in the field of robotics. When a dexterous hand grasps an object, the mechanical properties of the held object will play an important role. However, grasping an unknown object can be driven to instability in the presence of a conventional fixed gains controller. In addition to the stability issue, the mechanical properties of the object to be grasped can easily change the behaviour of the hand. Any interaction with an unknown object can result in a steady-state error and/or significant overshoot in the presence of a fixed gain conventional controller. These errors can result in the lifted object being crushed or falling and breaking. Therefore, the main difficulty of robotic grasping is estimating the correct grasp force to be applied to prevent slippage without damaging or deforming the object.

In this project, the successful applicant will design, model, fabricate and control an artificial prosthetic hand. The hand will be controlled by low level open and close commands from the patient’s muscles using an electromyography sensor (EMG). To overcome grasp uncertainties and external disturbances and to achieve a stable grasp, the applicant will design and develop a new adaptive controller technique.

Additional notes:

The successful applicant should have been awarded, or expect to achieve, a Bachelor’s degree (first or upper second class honours, or an equivalent qualification from an overseas institution) or a Master’s degree (with a 60% or higher weighted average) in a relevant subjects of Robotics, Mechatronics, Mechanical or Electrical, and Control. Preferred skill requirements include knowledge/experience of control systems, programming, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.