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 The technology used by most robotic arms and hands on the market -
and many more of those in development - typically comes with large
overheads.
In the last five years, though, learning almost exclusively online
in forums and emails, LaChappelle has managed to synthesize a series
of robotic hands that could change industries and lives - and most
of which cost just a few hundred dollars.
While other developments in countries like Austria and Argentina
have pushed the boundaries of prosthetic offerings, helping those
missing limbs to start to regain use of them with robotics,
LaChappelle has done so using 3D printing.
And he's made one that he says can read your mind. It's called
Anthromod.
"This reads right about 10 channels of the brain, so it kind of
works kind of like a muscle sensor in that it picks up small
electric discharges and turns that into something you can actually
read within software, and then we actually track patterns and try
and convert that into movement. So with this I'm actually able to
change grips, grip patterns, based on facial gestures, and then use
the raw actual brainwaves and focus to actually close the hand or
open the clamp or hand," he told Reuters Television.
One of the most important aspects of the Anthromod design is the way
in which it's controlled by the software, which LaChappelle says is
different from the types of control that exist in other robotic
platforms.
While it's the hand itself that moves, as more advanced controls are
created it's the software that's doing the heavy lifting, using
algorithms that make the arm easier to use.
"A good example is we actually had an amputee use the wireless
brainwave headset to control a hand, and he was able to fluently
control the robotic hand in right around about 10 minutes, so the
learning curve is hardly a learning curve any more," he said.
The arms themselves might not look polished and ready for the shop
floor - but LaChappelle sees them as cutting edge.
His robotic arms are all prototypes, each fulfilling a different
need according to their design, with some using a wireless brainwave
headset, designed more for prosthetic use. Another of his
tele-robotic controlled hands was created with dangerous
environments in mind, where human-like robots could be sent to allow
people to monitor situations and intervene from afar.
"I really tried to make this as human-like as possible - this is
probably about my fifth generation of the full robotic arm, and this
is controlled using a full tele-robotic system, so there's actually
a glove that you wear that tracks your hand movements,
accelerometers to track your wrist and elbow, and then an IMU sensor
as well to track your bicep rotation as well as your shoulder
movement, and that gets all translated wirelessly to the robotic arm
where it will copy what you do," he said.
One of the most impressive aspects of the arm is not the hardware
itself, or even the software that controls it - but the fact that it
can be 3D printed for a fraction of the cost of modern prosthetics.
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This allows him to make complex internal structures to the designs
which would otherwise be impossible, using not just any 3D printer,
but precisely the kind many expect people to have at home in the
near future.
"So 3D printing allows you to create something that's human-like,
something that's extremely customized, again for a very low cost,
which for certain applications such as prosthetics, is a really big
part of it," he told Reuters.
"The full robotic arm is actually open source, and so people are now
actually able to take this, reproduce it, and adapt it for different
situations, applications, and really see what you can do with it,"
he added.
The Anthromod itself cost only about 600 dollars to make,
LaChappelle said.
His work is documented in the videos he made at home, showing his
handiwork - all part of his effort at making the invention open
source - which means anyone can take his technology and customize
and build on it.
The idea, he said, is not to create something that can solve
problems for those with prostheses and other needs for robotic arms
like the ones he's invented - but rather to create a platform that
people around the world can use to customize their own versions of
to suit their needs.
"A big reason we designed this on the consumer level is because we
made this open source, we want someone that has a 3D printer, or
very little printing experience, to be able to replicate this, to be
able to use this for new applications, to be able to adapt it into
new situations, so it's really exciting to see what people will
start doing with something like this," he said.
"For the actual arm, we designed everything to be modular, meaning
all the joints can actually interchange, and there's a universal
bolt pattern. So you can now create something human-like, or you can
create a big 20 degree freedom arm for complex filming or even low
cost automations. So we really want to make a robotics platform, not
so much just a robotics hand from this," he added.
LaChappelle hopes his efforts will contribute to developments in
bomb defusal robots, heavy equipment and heavy industrial automation
robotic arms, as well as exoskeletons.
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