The loss of a hand or arm is a devastating life event that results in many months of healing and challenging rehabilitation. Technology has allowed the development of an electronic replacement for a lost limb but similar advancements in therapy have not occurred. The situation is made more challenging because people with amputations often do not live near specialized rehabilitation centres. As a result, delays in therapy can worsen common complications like nerve pain and joint stiffness. For children born without a limb, poor compliance with the use of their prosthesis leads to delays in therapy and may affect their development. In many parts of the world, amputation rehabilitation does not exist. Fortunately, we live in an age where advances in technology and engineering can help solve these problems. Virtual reality creates a simulated world or environment through computer animation much like what is seen in modern video games. An experienced team of rehabilitation doctors, therapists, engineers and computer scientists are required to realize a system such as this. A person with an amputation will be taught to control objects in the virtual world by wearing a modified electronic prosthesis. Using computers, it will be possible to analyze his or her movements within the virtual world and improve the wearer's skills. The goals of this system include making the system portable and internet compatible so that people living in remote areas can also receive therapy. The novel approach of using virtual reality to rehabilitate people with upper limb amputations will help them return to normal activities by providing modern and appropriate rehabilitation, reducing medical complications, improving motivation (via gaming modules), advancing health care technology and reducing health care costs. The use of virtual reality technology in the field of amputee rehabilitation is in its earliest stages of development world wide. A virtual environment (VE) will facilitate the early rehabilitation of a patient before they are clinically ready to be fitted with an actual prosthesis. In order to create a successful virtual reality rehabilitation system such as this, an accurate method of tracking the arm in real-time is necessary. A linear displacement sensor and a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) inertial measurement unit (IMU) were used to create a device for capturing the motion of a user's movement with the intent that the data provided by the device be used along with a VE as a virtual rehabilitation tool for new upper extremity amputation patients. This thesis focuses on the design and testing of this motion capture device in order to determine the suitability of current commercially available sensing components as used in this system. Success will be defined by the delivery of accurate position and orientation data from the device so that that data can be used in a virtual environment. Test results show that with current MEMS sensors, the error introduced by double integrating acceleration data is too significant to make an IMU an acceptable choice for position tracking. However, the device designed here has proven to be an excellent cable emulator, and would be well suited if used as an orientation tracker.

De traditionella armproteser som tillverkas i utvecklingsländer står inför stora problem i att leverera patienter med lämpliga hjälpmedel. Processen är inte bara tidskrävande eftersom varje enhet måste anpassas för varje enskild användare men vissa komponenter kan inte produceras lokalt vilket driver upp priset ytterligare. Syftet med detta examensarbete var att utveckla en armprotes för utvecklingsländerna med hjälp av additiv tillverkning (3D Printing) för klienten 3D Life Prints som baseras i Nairobi, Kenya. En protes är ett hjälpmedel som används för att underlätta en amputerad människa i dagliga aktiviteter och med hjälp av additiv tillverkning kan även en lokal tillverkningsprocess utvecklas och förbättras vilket skulle kunna minska tiden för tillverkning och distribution av proteser. Den initiala protesen, som låg till grund för designarbetet, var en underarmsprotes som fortfarande var i utvecklingsstadiet hos klienten. Protesen tillverkades med hjälp av tillverkningsmetoden Fused Deposit Modelling (FDM), som har den fördelen att den använder sig av relativt billiga 3D skrivare. För att sammanfatta syftet med projektet utvecklades följande frågeställningar 1. Hur tillverkas, distribueras och används konventionella proteser i jämförelse med additivt tillverkade proteser i Nairobi, Kenya? 2. Vem är den primära användaren av proteser i utvecklingsländer, vilka problem upplevs hos dagens lösningar och vilka faktorer anses vara den viktigaste hos användaren? Och varför?  3. Hur ska additivt tillverkade proteser utformas för optimal användning i utvecklingsländer?  Förutom att besvara frågeställningarna var målet att utvecklingen av systemet skulle leda till förbättrad funktionalitet för användaren och underlätta tillverkningen för organisationen.  För att få en allmän översikt över det vetenskapliga området av additivt tillverkade proteser studerades kontexten för utvecklingsländer, användarcentrerad design (eftersom syftet var att förbättra en produkt för en specifik användare), armproteser och additiv tillverkning. Resultatet, från de olika stadier av designprocessen, var den slutgiltiga designen av "3D Life Arm". Det slutliga systemet bestod av fyra huvudkomponenter, Kroppsselen, Inlägget, Proteshanden och Hylsan. Komponenterna använde sig utav additiv tillverkning i både styvt material (Kroppsselen, Hylsan och Inlägget) och flexibelt material (Proteshanden). Lokalt tillgängliga komponenter användes där additiv tillverkning inte var möjligt till exempel fisketråd och skruvar. En slutsats drogs att de två faktorer som ansågs viktigast för användaren var att produkten skulle vara estetiskt tilltalande och billig. Även sociala stigman spelar en stor roll och enligt användare och experter i Nairobi, måste protesen efterlikna den saknade armen så mycket som möjligt för att kunna smälta in. Författarna konstaterade att kostnaden var den viktigaste faktorn när man utformar proteser för utvecklingsländerna, eftersom användaren i dagsläget inte har råd med de proteser som tillverkas i Nairobi. Sammanfattningsvis utfördes en kostnads- och tidsanalys för att kontrollera tillverkningskostnaderna för hela systemet. Med tre skrivare kunde alla delar tillverkas för 282 kronor och skulle ta cirka 15 timmar och 15 minuter att skriva ut som är betydligt lägre än de funktionella proteser som tillverkades i Nairobi. Ytterligare utvärderingar krävs för att fastställa att protesen kommer att klara av påfrestningarna från dagliga aktiviteter hos användaren och en fungerande strategi för passning måste utvärderas ytterligare. Författarna tror dock att med hjälp av en fullt utbildad protestillverkare finns det en framtid för additiv tillverkning av armproteser. / The traditional prosthetic arms that are being fitted in developing countries are facing major issues in suppling patients with proper assistive aids. Not only is the process time consuming with every single unit having to be customized for the user but some parts can’t be locally produced which drives up price even further. The objective of this master thesis was to develop a prosthetic arm for developing countries with the help of additive manufacturing (3D printing) for the client 3D Life Prints which are based in Nairobi, Kenya. A prosthesis is used to aid an amputee in daily living activities. With additive manufacturing the intention is that a local manufacturing process could be developed and improved which would reduce the time of fitting and distributing a prosthesis. The initial prosthesis, that was the origin of the design, was a below elbow prosthetic arm that was being developed by the client. The prosthesis was fabricated with the additive manufacturing process fused deposition modelling (FDM) which has the advantage of providing the cheapest printers. To summarize the aim of the project the research questions that was established was as followed 1. How are conventional prosthetic arms generally being manufactured, distributed and used compared to additive manufactured prostheses in Nairobi, Kenya?  2. Who is the primary user of prosthetic arms in developing countries, what problems are they facing with current solutions and what factors are considered as the most important? And why? 3. How should additive manufactured prostheses be designed for optimal usage in developing countries? In addition to answer the research questions the aim was that the development of the system would lead to enhanced functionality for the user and to facilitate manufacturing for the organization. To get a general overview of additive manufacturing prostheses the fields theories that was studied included context of developing countries, user centred design (since the aim was to approve on a product which needed to suit a specific user), upper limb prostheses and additive manufacturing. As a result, from different stages of the design process a final design was reached called the “3D Life Arm”.  The final system was comprised of four main components, the Harness system, the Insert, the Cover and the Socket. These components used additive manufacturing in both rigid material (Harness parts, Socket and Insert) and flexible material (the Cover). Locally available components were used for parts not feasible to additive manufacture e.g. fishing wire and screws. The two factors that were concluded to be the most important for the user were the aesthetic appeal and cost. With social stigmas playing a major part according to users and experts in Nairobi, the prosthesis needs to resemble the missing limb as much as possible. It was concluded that cost was the major factor when designing prostheses for developing countries since user just wasn’t able to afford the prostheses that was being manufactured in Nairobi. In the end a cost and time analysis was conducted to verify what price the complete system would need to be manufactured. With three printers all parts could be printed for the price of 282 SEK and would take approximately 15 hours and 15 minutes to print which is considerably lower than that of the functional prosthesis being distributed in Nairobi. Further evaluations need to be done to establish that the prosthesis will manage the strains and stresses of daily living activities of the user and a complete fitting strategy needs to be evaluated further. It’s the authors belief however, that with the help of fully educated prosthetist there is a future for additive manufacturing of upper limb amputees.

The aim of this thesis is to optimize the design of the Fat-IBC-based communication of a novel neuroprosthetic system in which a brain-machine interface is used to control a prosthetic arm. Fat-based intra-body communication (Fat-IBC) uses the fat tissue inside the body of the bearer as a transmission medium for low-power microwaves. Future projects will use the communication system and investigate ways to control the prosthetic arm directly from the brain. The finished system was able to individually control all movable joints of multiple prosthesis prototypes using information that was received wirelessly through Fat-IBC. Simultaneous transmission in the other direction was possible, with the control data then being replaced by sensor readings from the prosthesis. All data packets were encoded with the COBS/R algorithm and the wireless communication was handled by Digi Xbee 3 radio modules using the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol at a frequency of 2.45 GHz. The Fat-IBC communication was evaluated with the help of so-called "phantoms" which emulated the conditions of the human body fat channel. During said testing, packet loss measurements were performed for various combinations of packet sizes and time intervals between packets. The packet loss measurements showed that the typical amount of transmitted data could be handled well by the fat channel test setup. Although the transmission system was found to be well-functioning in its current state, increasing the packet size to achieve a higher granularity of the movement was perceived to be viable considering the findings from the packet loss measurements.