14 DAY TRIAL // Developed by Open Bionics, their new 3D printed prosthetic arm seems, at the moment, the most advanced prosthetic device in the world.
Starting development since 2013, the new upstart company Open Bionics is the project of Joel Gibbard who came up with the idea of making advanced prosthetics not only smart and technologically complex, but most importantly affordable. One of the main issues with really impressive prosthetics today is not their design or whether they achieve their purpose of emulating human organs, but their price. An advanced prosthetic like I-Limb that can offer realistic limbs movements like hands and legs costs around $38,534 (€34,328) to $123,340 (€109,892), which isn't something every amputee can afford.
However, Gibbard plans to change all that using 3D technology to build cheaper prosthetics that offer the same advantages as much more expensive ones. Using DC motors with a spool, steel tendons and 3D printed plastic parts and rubber, he managed to build an impressive robot arm that can simulate bones, tendons, muscles and skin, most of them 3D printed.
Nothing is patented, everything is free
The impressive part is how users control the arm. They do it via electromyographic signals picked up from the muscle in their arm using stick-on electrodes. Even those with their hands amputated still have some muscles remaining, which can send electric signals to the electrodes and develop a desired movement.
Right now Open Bionics is working at Dextrus, an affordable $1,000 (€890) hand prosthetic that uses all the knowledge and affordability Gibbard has planned to implement from the start. The impressive part is that he didn't patent anything, every prosthetic can be made just the way people would want, and if you have the know-how and the manufacturing possibility, you could build one too.
The entire printing process will take just 40 hours, instead of weeks or months for the patients that pay big bucks to get a very similar prosthetic arm from the mainstream vendors.
