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Top1. Introduction
Out of the total population of upper limb amputees in the world, more than 59% are transradial (i.e., amputation below elbow). The main reasons of their amputation are trauma, industrial or environmental accidents, cancerous tumor in bone and muscles, etc. Also, the majority of upper limb amputees (65%) are reported from rural areas. These amputees require a prosthetic hand that is not only functional but also affordable and easy to handle. Based on the survey of world health organization (WHO) and international society of prosthetics and orthotics (ISPO) more than 80% of below elbow amputees residing in developing countries cannot afford to have functional prosthetic devices (Hamner, Narayan, & Donaldson, 2013; Slade, Akhtar, Nguyen, & Bretl, 2015; World Report on Disability, 2011). Most of these patients are still using the body-powered and cosmetic prosthesis, which are unable to fulfill the needs of their daily life. Presently available myoelectric hands are capable of reinstating the lost functionality of amputees up to some extent. But their extremely high cost makes these hands inaccessible to amputees who are especially from developing countries. Thus, this research work aims to develop an affordable myoelectric hand prosthesis that can be helpful to transradial amputees (of low-income countries) for executing the basic functions of their daily livings.
Nowadays, the myoelectric prostheses are widely applied for restoring the lost capabilities of amputees using sEMG signal from their residual limb. It essentially comprises: (i) an EMG detecting device (ii) a controller which processes these signals and translates to control command to drive actuators by employing real-time learning (iii) a prosthetic hand with proper actuation scheme (Asghari Oskoei & Hu, 2007; Parker, Englehart, & Hudgins, 2006). The quality of the myoelectric signal for prosthetic hand control mainly depends on the conditioning circuit of the surface EMG acquisition system (Shobaki et al., 2013).