DigiArm: An Anthropomorphic 3D-Printed Prosthetic Hand with Enhanced Dexterity for Typing Tasks

2026-02-26

AI Summary

Current prosthetic hands struggle to achieve the dexterity and intuitive control of the human hand, particularly in tasks requiring fine finger coordination such as typing or piano playing. This work proposes a low-cost, lightweight, 3D-printed bionic prosthetic hand that uniquely integrates independently actuated fingers, adjustable inter-finger abduction/adduction spacing, and two-degree-of-freedom wrist motion supporting ulnar and radial deviation. This integrated design substantially enhances performance in fine manipulation tasks. User experiments demonstrate that the system can execute complex human–machine interaction tasks—including real-time typing and piano playing—with finger–wrist coordination capabilities markedly superior to those of existing prosthetic solutions.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Manipulation
• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Simulating Human Behavior

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: On-Device user modeling, personalization, and recommendation

Abstract

Despite recent advancements, existing prosthetic limbs are unable to replicate the dexterity and intuitive control of the human hand. Current control systems for prosthetic hands are often limited to grasping, and commercial prosthetic hands lack the precision needed for dexterous manipulation or applications that require fine finger motions. Thus, there is a critical need for accessible and replicable prosthetic designs that enable individuals to interact with electronic devices and perform precise finger pressing, such as keyboard typing or piano playing, while preserving current prosthetic capabilities. This paper presents a low-cost, lightweight, 3D-printed robotic prosthetic hand, specifically engineered for enhanced dexterity with electronic devices such as a computer keyboard or piano, as well as general object manipulation. The robotic hand features a mechanism to adjust finger abduction/adduction spacing, a 2-D wrist with the inclusion of controlled ulnar/radial deviation optimized for typing, and control of independent finger pressing. We conducted a study to demonstrate how participants can use the robotic hand to perform keyboard typing and piano playing in real time, with different levels of finger and wrist motion. This supports the notion that our proposed design can allow for the execution of key typing motions more effectively than before, aiming to enhance the functionality of prosthetic hands.

Problem

• prosthetic hand
• dexterity
• fine finger motion
• typing tasks
• anthropomorphic design

Innovation

• anthropomorphic prosthetic hand
• enhanced dexterity
• independent finger control
• 2-D wrist mechanism
• 3D-printed robotics