Ever since the field of robotics evolved, many advanced robots grabbed the spotlight. And suddenly the doctors and surgeons had an insight to drag this technology in the field of medicine to provide the many unfortunates out there with the assistance there were devoid for so long. The answer is the development of prosthetic limbs to create a rudimentary mimic of real working limbs. Though in the earlier times prosthetic limbs were available, but they were extremely uncomfortable and could not perform any task because of absolute stiffness. Many other prototypes have come to light since then and to add to this legacy Youbionic has developed a 3 d printed prosthetic hand.
Bionic is a very interesting field. Bionics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. But technology has been struggling to keep pace with it. Youbionic has used the latest 3 D printing technology to prepare a working prototype of a prosthetic hand. This might be the next giant leap in the field of prosthetics and the harbinger of a new hope for the needy. The biggest advantage of this prosthetic hand is its low price, almost less than a tenth of what other models cost.
Youbionic’s 3 d printed prosthetic hand will only cost $1000. Though it is not a very complexly developed prototype but it is a lot better than the other stiff prosthetics. One of the major plus points of this prototype is that it is manufactured in a single print, since it uses 3 D printing technology. It completely eliminates the need of assembling the processed parts thus providing robustness and flexibility at the same time.
It doesn’t matter if the person requiring this prosthetic hand is an amputee or is possessing a birth defect because it is absolutely customizable to give the user a perfect fit and complete control. Most of the 3 D printing devices yet developed are manual, which means there is obviously going to a tangled mess of wires and even if we entertain the possibility of wireless, then it is going to be extremely expensive. This prosthetic arm is electronically controlled and is based on the movement of muscles. It completely eradicated any discomfort that might occur to the user. Youbionic’s 3 D printed bionic hand combats all these negative points. Muscle sensors take the input from electronic pulses that surround the other muscles. This allows the user to operate this prosthetic extension just like it was a part of your very own skin. The sensors detect intended movement and allow the Youbionic hand to respond in the appropriate manner.
This hand takes prosthetics to a whole different level as it also enables wrist mobility. The basic structure of this arm is an Arduino microcontroller and uses commercially produced servomotors. This prototype has been produced using a laser formulation of nylon. This project might hit the market as soon as the next summer.
