Project objectives
The hand allows man a level of interaction with the outside world unthinkable for
other species. With its 22 degrees of freedom, the hand allows a very high possible number of grips which, if on the one hand represents a great advantage, on the other it poses enormous control problems: in the course of evolution, the development of the hand has been sustained by the parallel development of a dedicated and incredibly large sensorimotor control network, as evidenced by the representation of the hand in the cortical homunculus. When disabling pathologies or injuries causing amputation alter this enormously complex system, the impact on human life is truly high.
The present project aims to promote scientific, technological and clinical advances on prosthetic and exoskeletal systems for the upper limb, with particular reference to the development of low-cost robotic solutions that can be customized on the specific needs of the patient, to remove the current obstacles that limit the widespread dissemination of this technology and enhance the usability of these advanced technologies by the target population.
3D-AID will develop an innovative production methodology through the use of digital manufacturing enabling technologies which, suitably connected in a network of services from the production point of view of the Internet of Things (IoT), will allow, on the one hand, to customize the technology reducing the costs of custom development on the other hand, to distribute the production process throughout the territory in a scenario that is overall effective, efficient and capable of achieving important economies of scale. To reduce the complexity, modular design strategies, scaling laws will be adopted to adapt the developed components to the peculiarities of each patient, and computational optimization strategies. All this, promoting the synergy between advanced robotics and enabling digital technologies, will allow a pervasive diffusion of new low-cost prosthetic and exoskeletal solutions for the hand: the 3D-AID platform. |
