At Johns Hopkins University, engineers have recently created a prosthetic hand that can grip and hold everyday items without damaging them in a way that mimics human touch. The new design is a hybrid that combines rigid and soft materials that are more accurate to the way a human hand behaves. This prosthetic has tactile sensors inspired by human skin that can accurately identify and adjust its grip on different objects, showing a 99.69% success rate in tests.
Led by Sriramana Sankar, a Johns Hopkins biomedical engineer, the team hopes to create a model that can more naturally act like a real limb might. A quote from Sankar herself, states the project goal: “We want to give people with upper-limb loss the ability to safely and freely interact with their environment, to feel and hold their loved ones without concern of hurting them.”
This advancement could significantly improve prosthetics and robotics, although further enhancements in grip strength and sensors are still planned for the future.
Related Articles:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250305164326.htm
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/making-prosthetic-limbs-feel-more-real-brain-computer-interfaces
https://www.nature.com/articles/d43978-024-00034-1
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2024/02/enabling-prosthetic-limbs-to-feel.page
https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-hand-simulates-touch
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