design | It Is What It Is

~~October 3, 2015~~

PROSTHETIC HAND

Advanced prosthetics have come a long way in the last few years, but the costs have also skyrocketed. A cheaper alternative may be on its way thanks to Easton LaChappelle, a 17-year old high school student from Colorado, who is using free online resources and the boom in inexpensive 3D printers to develop a functional prosthetic arm and hand. His projects have already earned him an invitation to the White House, and he’s now working at NASA on the Robonaut team.

It all began when he was 14, when he decided to try to build a robotic hand using Lego. At the time he knew next to nothing about electronics, but learned through sites like Instructables how to get the hand to open and close its fingers using a combination of fishing line and servo motors. The project earned him third place at the 2011 Colorado State science fair.

It was there that he met a 7-year old girl who was wearing a state of the art prosthetic that cost an astounding US $80,000. Upon hearing that figure, LaChappelle became determined to design and build an inexpensive alternative. He soon discovered that manufacturing anything the old-fashioned way was prohibitively expensive, but luckily he had a friend with access to a 3D printer. He began working with Solidworks, a 3D modeling program, and looked for ready-made parts on Thingiverse, an online repository of open source models.

This version of the prosthetic costs less than US $500 dollars and is controlled using an EEG headband that measures brainwaves.

“As it appears in …. full read/full credit”

http://dicronite-elpaso.com/news/teens-inexpensive-3d-printed-prosthetic-could-aid-amputees-in-the-third-world/

~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~

Google Images

~~GALLERY~~

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