Systems and methods for prosthetic wrist rotation

A prosthetic wrist comprising:

• a fixed portion defining a longitudinal axis and configured to attach to a prosthetic or natural arm;
• a rotatable portion configured to attach to a prosthetic hand, the prosthetic hand comprising an inertial measurement unit (IMU) configured to detect an orientation of the prosthetic hand in three dimensional space including a rotational position of the prosthetic hand about the longitudinal axis;
• an actuator module attached to both the fixed and rotatable portions and configured to actuate the rotatable portion relative to the fixed portion to cause rotation of the prosthetic hand;
• and a processor configured to:
• communicate with the IMU and the actuator module;
• receive data from the IMU associated with the orientation of the prosthetic hand in three dimensional space including the rotational position of the prosthetic hand about the longitudinal axis,
• identify a desired grip for the prosthetic hand,
• determine a rotation for the rotatable portion based on only i) the data from the IMU and ii) the desired grip, and
• cause the actuator module to perform the rotation.

A prosthetic hand and wrist system, the system comprising:

• a prosthetic hand;
• a prosthetic wrist comprising a fixed portion, an actuator module, and a rotatable portion, the fixed portion configured to attach to an arm, the rotatable portion configured to attach to the prosthetic hand, and the actuator module attached to both the fixed and rotatable portions and configured to actuate the rotatable portion relative to the fixed portion thereby rotating the prosthetic hand;
• an inertial measurement unit (IMU) attached to the prosthetic hand and configured to detect an orientation of the prosthetic hand;
• and a processor in communication with the IMU and the actuator module and configured to:
• receive data from the IMU associated with the orientation of the prosthetic hand,
• detect a gesture movement of the prosthetic hand, the gesture movement comprising a translation of the prosthetic hand, wherein to detect the gesture movement of the prosthetic hand the processor is further configured to determine that the translation exceeds an acceleration threshold,
• determine a desired grip for the prosthetic hand based on the detected gesture movement,
• determine a rotation for the prosthetic hand based on only i) the data from the IMU and ii) the desired grip, and
• cause the actuator module to perform the rotation for the prosthetic hand by actuating the rotatable portion.