liam's robohand

Feb 4, 2013

A child's prosthetic hand, made from lightweight plastic parts, with finger digits and a fully integrated structure for movement

3D printing is a perfect match for lightweight prosthetics, it turns out. The material makes so much sense for children, whose parts will invariably need to be re-sized and whose use of force is still in development. I covered the “magic arms” a few months ago; the promise of these printed parts’ physical qualities, plus resources like openSCAD, just keeps getting better. The designer-engineers just made the project entirely open-source over at Thingiverse.

The video below tracks Liam on Day 3 of his new hand’s use—practicing the fine art of picking up coins from a table and throwing a ball.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB53-D_N8Uc&w=560&h=315]

More videos and documents of this collaborative project at Coming Up Shorthanded—see photos below documenting the progress of the finger designs—and some great background at Ars Technica. (Thanks, Khairani.)

proto1 proto2 proto3 proto4a