Prosthetic Jamming Terminal Device: A Case Study of Untethered Soft Robotics.

This article illuminates the major and often overlooked challenge of untethering soft robotic systems through the context of recent work, in which soft robotic gripper technology enabled by jamming of granular media was applied to a prosthetic jamming terminal device (PJTD). The PJTD's technical and market feasibility was evaluated in a pilot study with two upper-limb amputees. A PJTD prototype was tested against a commercial device (Motion Control electric terminal service with a one degree-of-freedom pinching mechanism) using two existing hand function tests: the first quantified the device's speed in picking and placing small blocks and the second evaluated a person's ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs).