Control of 3D-printed Hand Prosthetic via Intra-body Fat Channel Communication

Abstract: Intra-Body Communication (IBC) is a prospective technology where human tissue may be used as a signal medium in order to transmit useful data within the human body. Proposed applica- tions of this technology are prosthetics control or implanted device communication, potentially by establishing an Intra-Body Area Network (IBAN), which could further be enhanced by other IoT applications and 5G radio systems. Previous research at Uppsala University has shown the fat tissue to be a promising medium due to its low permittivity and loss tangent. This form of implementation is named Fat-IBC. This thesis aimed to produce a Fat-IBC enabled device, as a proof of concept. This project successfully produced and characterized phantom tissue, produced a basic demonstrator device in the form of a 3D-printed arm prosthetic, and integrated a wireless communication system into the arm prosthetic. The communication system was implemented using Arduino microcontrollers and XBee RF modules, based on the 802.15.4-based ZigBee protocol at 2.45 GHz. Muscle, fat, and skin phantom tissues were produced, with the muscle tissue being similar to other comparable tissue samples, while the fat and skin tissues deviated from such samples. A signal loss transmission test measured a -67 dB loss over 20 cm of fat tissue. Several potential issues with production and measurement were discussed. The arm demonstrator device was also tested by transmitting the control signal across phantom fat tissue, being fully functional through 10cm of tissue, and of limited function across 20cm of tissue.