Body-powered prostheses are known for their advantages of cost, reliability, training period, maintenance, and proprioceptive feedback. This study primarily aims to analyze the work related to the improvement of upper limb body-powered prostheses prior to 2016. A systematic review conducted via the search of the Web of Science electronic database, Google Scholar, and Google Patents identified 155 papers from 1921 to 2016. Sackett's initial rules of evidence were used to determine the levels of evidence, and only papers categorized in the design and development category and patents were analyzed. A total of 40 papers in the sixth level of "Design and Development" of an upper limb body-powered prosthesis were found. Approximately 81% were categorized under mechanical alteration. Most papers were patent-type documents (48%), with the Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development publishing most of the articles related to the design and development of body-powered prostheses. Papers in the scope of the study were published once every 3 years in almost a century, proving that only a few studies were conducted to improve body-powered arms compared with myoelectric technology. Further research should be carried out mainly in areas that have received less attention.
This study was conducted to develop muscle and mental activities on repetitive precision tasks. A laboratory experiment was used to address the objectives. Surface electromyography was used to measure muscle activities from eight upper limb muscles, while electroencephalography recorded mental activities from six channels. Fourteen university students participated in the study. The results show that muscle and mental activities increase for all tasks, indicating the occurrence of muscle and mental fatigue. A linear relationship between muscle activity, mental activity and time was found while subjects were performing the task. Thus, models were developed using those variables. The models were found valid after validation using other students' and workers' data. Findings from this study can contribute as a reference for future studies investigating muscle and mental activity and can be applied in industry as guidelines to manage muscle and mental fatigue, especially to manage job schedules and rotation.