Students at the University of Manchester, England, designed and built a 3D-printed, low-cost robotic prosthetic hand that won Best New Development in the Digital Innovation Challenge at the Industry 4.0 Summit and Factories of the Future Expo, held in Manchester, February 28-March 1. The hand’s joints are all fully posable with each individual finger and the thumb able to move and make a fist. The students built the hand for £307 ($435).
The hand is controlled by muscle sensors placed on the user’s arm that can be paired to an Android smartphone app, which was also designed by the group. The device also includes a Bluetooth connection.
The prosthesis is the brainchild of Alex Agboola-Dobson, a student in the mechanical engineering master’s program at the university, and his team, lead electrical engineer Sebastian Preston-Jensen, lead software engineer Panagiotis Papathanasiou, and mechanical and software engineers Maximillian Rimmer and Shao Hian Liew.
“The functionality is customized through the phone app, but the muscle sensors provide the control by moving the hand whenever necessary. It is really simple to use,” said Agboola-Dobson.
The 3D printing was done with stereolithography (SLA) printing. Eventually the team aims to move to fused deposition modeling (FDM) printing which will make the hand less expensive to produce without reducing the quality. Agboola-Dobson says the team will look toward commercializing the prosthesis.
To see a video of the hand in action, visit the University of Manchester’s website under News.
Editor’s note: This story was adapted from materials provided by the University of Manchester.
