The University of Trinidad and Tobago’s Aviation Unit has designed a low cost finger prosthetic for developing countries.
Research began in 2017 with UTT Senior Instructor – Aviation, Dr. Kelvin Loutan Jr. partnering with former Associate Professor Mechanical Engineering at UTT, Dr. Umesh Persad. Dr. Persad is now affiliated with the University of Florida.
The aim was to create a prosthetic device for a child using a residual finger stump’s power.
After numerous design tweaks, the prototype was tested in January 2023. In August, the design and its results were presented at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Conference on Design, Simulation and Optimisation for Additive Manufacturing in Boston.
This is the world’s first Bowden cable driven prosthetic finger featuring simultaneous movement across all joints.
Ongoing research aims to enhance the design’s versatility making it customisable and open source. This will allow individuals to freely download, print, test, and contribute to further design improvements.