Patent ID: 8449624

Claim:
A prosthetic wrist assembly for imparting fixed path motion to a prosthetic hand assembly, the prosthetic wrist assembly comprising: an input support structure having a hand interface disposed at its distal end and attached thereto for coupling the hand assembly to the input support structure; a wrist pivot axle passing through the input support structure and extending outwardly therefrom to engage the hand interface; and a motor for driving the wrist pivot axle in rotary motion, wherein rotary motion of the wrist pivot axle drives the hand interface to move the hand assembly along a fixed flexion-deviation movement path having a component of flexion about the wrist pivot axle and a component of deviation about a deviation axis that is substantially perpendicular to the wrist pivot axle; wherein the wrist pivot axle includes a flattened end portion at each end extending outwardly from the input support structure into the hand interface; wherein the hand interface includes first and second slider blocks slidably coupled to the flattened end portions of the pivot axle and adapted to attach the hand assembly thereto; wherein the hand interface includes first and second cam bearings attached to the input support structure about each flattened end portion of the pivot axle, the first and second cam bearings having first and second cam profiles formed therein defining the fixed flexion-deviation movement path; and wherein each of the first and second slider blocks includes a cam follower engaging one of the first or second cam profiles.