Robotic hand gives amputees tactile control

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) News Service reports that engineers at MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have designed a soft, lightweight and potentially low-cost neuroprosthetic hand that can give an amputee the ability to perform daily activities with dexterity. Additionally, the researchers found the prosthetic, designed with a system for tactile feedback, restored some primitive sensation in a volunteer’s residual limb. The smart hand is soft and elastic, extremely durable and weighs about half a pound. Its components total about $500, a fraction of the material cost of more rigid smart limbs. “This is not a product yet, but the performance is already similar or superior to existing neuroprosthetics,” says Xuanhe Zhao, professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at MIT. Zhao and his colleagues have published their work in Nature Biomedical Engineering. Photo: MIT/the researchers.