New Clinically-Useful Control Strategies Made Possible By The Varigrip II Multi-Device Controller

The VariGrip II Controller can operate up to three variable speed motors. For inputs it uses two, three, or four variable voltages and one on-off switch. This makes a large number of control strategies available, but not all are clinically useful. To date the most popular controls have used two myoelectrodes to control two or three devices. The controller has been used with the two VASI elbows and the Hosmer and Boston elbows to solve clinical problems that were heretofore intractable. The system also permits proportional control of two-motor devices such as the Bock 2000 hands, the Steeper Gripper, and the Centri UltraLite hand. We will discuss a number of the strategies that have proven clinically useful.