Development of a Low Cost 3D Printed Myoelectric Hand using EMG and ECG Signal Fusion

For amputees in underdeveloped nations, the high expenses and complexity of commercial upper-limb prosthetics continue to be major obstacle to accessibility. The design, development, and testing of an affordable, 3D printed bionic hand with a dual-sensor interface is presented in this study. This system incorporates Electrocardiography(ECG) as a secondary control modality for improved stability and mode switching, in the contrast to standard myoelectric systems that only use Electromyography (EMG) and are vulnerable to motion artifacts and false triggers. Autodesk Fusion 360 was used to design the mechanical structure, which was then made of polylactic acid (PLA) and has a tendon-driven actuation mechanism controlled by SG90 servo motors. Band-pass filtering and threshold-based algorithms are used by the control logic, which is implemented on an Arduino Uno, to handle biosignals in real time. The ECG signal successfully serves as a safety interlock, and experimental results show a system latency of about 190ms and a strong object grabbing capacity. The combination of multimodal biosignals with additive manufacturing can produce a dependable, accessible, and useful prosthetic solution, as evidence by the fact that the entire fabrication cost was kept under 10000 INR.