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Biomechanical Comparison Of The Validity Of Two Configurations Of Simulators For Body-Powered Hand Prostheses, Camille Bennett, Amanuel Matias, Brendan Smith, Jenevieve Roper, Stephen Estelle

Honors Thesis

Simulators are often used in prosthesis research to evaluate new devices or characterize aspects of prosthesis use, so as to recruit participants without amputations. Simulators, in general, must locate the prosthesis somewhere other than where the intact biological limb exists. In this study, we compared two configurations of simulators for hand prostheses to determine which leads to more natural elbow and shoulder kinematics, and in turn, which is the more valid simulator. One configuration located the prosthesis in-line with the forearm, beyond the biological hand; the other located it beside the hand. We measured the kinematics of 12 non-amputee participants …