Design and control of 3D printed, actuated prosthetic hands

Started June 23, 2022

Abstract or project description

Kids in underprivileged areas don’t have access to prosthetics. Making prosthetics for kids is difficult because they grow quickly and the limb must be adjustable. Traditionally prosthetics are hard to control, and they’re bulky and expensive to manufacture. 3D printing prosthetics is a more accessible way to create prosthetic limbs, it is a method that is also faster than traditional manufacturing, and allows more customizable designs for children. In this project, I want to create a 3D printed hand prosthetic that has controllable and actuated fingers. I will explore and learn about methods of actuation to maximize the range of motion, adaptability, and degrees of freedom. Along with an actuated prosthetic, I want to create 15 simpler partial hand prosthetics that can be scalable so that kids from ages 8-13 are able to use them despite having variable hand sizes. I will send these prosthetics out to underprivledged areas with a connection to non profit "Hands for Heroes". The biggest learning goals are desgining prosthetic functional mechanisms, modeling the prosthetic hands in SolidWorks, programming it to be controllable in Python, and mechanical design for 3D printing. I would also like to learn more about mechanisms in the hands and elbows as well as biomimicry. I want to research and understand how the most advanced prosthetics work and implement ideas into my own work. The final product will be one actuated prosthetic hand, 15 simpler prosthetics that are not actuated, and a website with the details and process of my project.