Prosthetic wrist and palm
Mechanical Engineering Team Lead, Georgia Tech Medical Robotics, Sept 2023 to Dec 2025
What
The wrist and palm of a trans-radial prosthetic arm, with wrist flexion and extension, wrist rotation and tendon-driven grip, plus the integration plan that kept the mechanical, electrical and software subteams building to one design.
Why
The arm had to replicate natural wrist kinematics while staying ergonomic, lightweight and intuitive, and the wrist had to carry the motors and electronics without overloading the user's residual limb.
How
- Led the wrist and palm architecture in SolidWorks, using anatomical wrist data to set joint spacing
- Prototyped multiple linkage configurations to maximize range of motion without overloading torque on the residual limb
- Iterated the wrist in SolidWorks Simulation FEA around PLA+ material limits
- Defined the mechanical and electrical interfaces, from Dynamixel servo mounting tolerances and cable routing to space for motor drivers, sensors and batteries, and the mounting and calibration of the wrist rotation encoder with Software
- Ran weekly integration syncs and kept a shared block diagram of physical and electrical interfaces, catching mismatches like joint speed and torque profiles against control-loop expectations
- Helped design the tendon-driven fingers
- SolidWorks
- SolidWorks Simulation
- FEA
- PLA+ 3D printing
- Linkage design
- Dynamixel servos
- Rotary encoder
- EMG control
- Tendon-driven fingers
- Systems integration
Loading the CAD model
Team CAD, simplified for the web. Drag to rotate.
Results
- 35% higher wrist factor of safety at lower weight
- Working end-to-end prototype, from EMG input to actuation
- Integration across a 17-member team