A generic high-dexterity soft neuroprosthetic hand for daily activities

A generic high-dexterity soft neuroprosthetic hand for daily activities | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article A generic high-dexterity soft neuroprosthetic hand for daily activities Guoying Gu, Ningbin Zhang, Xinyu Yang, Zheng Zong, Yang Yu, Yi Zhao, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6662318/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Robotic prostheses are the primary technique currently to replace the lost hands of upper-limb amputees. Although various neuroprosthetic hands have been developed, featuring both rigid and soft actuation mechanisms, they typically offer grasping-oriented functionality with significantly fewer degrees of freedom (DOFs, ≤6) compared to the human hand. This limitation often restricts their functional versatility and manipulation adaptability in daily activities. Herein, we report a generic dexterous soft neuroprosthetic hand (DexSoftNeuroHand) with 11 active DOFs that restores commonly-used grasping and fine manipulation functionalities in daily activities, experimentally validated by four amputee subjects (including male and female, young and old in age from 38 to 70). Our DexSoftNeuroHand mechanism compactly integrates bioinspired soft fingers with thumb-palm articulations, enabling both adaptivity and dexterity through a simplified myoelectric control interface. By incorporating commercial 2-channel myoelectric electrodes, four amputee subjects wearing our DexSoftNeuroHand have demonstrated capabilities superior to those of current prostheses in standardized tests and durable experiments during extended 12-hour daily operations. This enhanced performance significantly improves amputees’ participation in daily activities and social interactions, such as braiding a girl’s hair, taking a pill, manipulating scissors, steering a bicycle and car, continuously pinching and screwing a bulb. These results demonstrate that the high-dexterity, soft-robotic hand design expands the opportunities to enhance prosthesis versatility and provides a more natural usage experience, requiring minimal neural control burden. Physical sciences/Engineering/Mechanical engineering Physical sciences/Engineering/Biomedical engineering Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryVideo1.mp4 Supplementary Video 1 SupplementaryVideo2.mp4 Supplementary Video 2 SupplementaryVideo3.mp4 Supplementary Video 3 SupplementaryVideo4.mp4 Supplementary Video 4 SupplementaryVideo5.mp4 Supplementary Video 5 SupplementaryVideo6.mp4 Supplementary Video 6 SupplementaryVideo7.mp4 Supplementary Video 7 SupplementaryVideo8.mp4 Supplementary Video 8 SupplementaryVideo9.mp4 Supplementary Video 9 SupplementaryVideo10.mp4 Supplementary Video 10 SupplementaryVideo11.mp4 Supplementary Video 11 SupplementaryVideo12.mp4 Supplementary Video 12 SupplementaryVideo13.mp4 Supplementary Video 13 SupplementaryVideo14.mp4 Supplementary Video 14 SupplementaryVideo15.mp4 Supplementary Video 15 SupplementaryVideo16.mp4 Supplementary Video 16 SI20251216zhangfinal.pdf Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6662318","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":613229073,"identity":"cf14a579-546e-4252-a7b2-1a7d0a82f70d","order_by":0,"name":"Guoying 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