Robohub.org
 

A bionic model is born

by
17 March 2015



share this:
Openbionics_Grace_Mandeville_prosthetic_hand_arm_6

YouTube starlet and CBBC actress Kate Mandeville sports a Swarovski-crystal-adorned prosthetic at London’s Wearable Tech Show. Designed and 3D printed by Open Bionics, Mandeville’s bionic arm is a statement in fashion and personality.

The personalisation of healthcare devices has been a growing trend in the maker-sphere. From gold-plated hearing aids, neon walking sticks, and sparkling blade prosthetics to 3D printed arm casts, people with disabilities are no longer waiting for health services to catch up – they are dragging their medical devices into the future on their own.

These medical aids are getting a long-awaited makeover and today it’s the turn of the bionic hand with Open Bionics unveiling of their latest 3Dprinted prosthetic at London’s Wearable Tech Show.

Open Bionics, a startup of four based inside the Bristol Robotic’s Laboratory’s Technology Incubator, has 3D printed a custom-fitted bionic hand with enough sparkle to rival a disco ball for a woman born without a hand.

Openbionics_Grace_Mandeville_prosthetic_arm_hand_1

Grace Mandeville is a YouTube starlet and CBBC actress who applauds the growing popularity for diverse prosthetics.

Grace has taken to YouTube on multiple occasions to discuss diversity and her love of inventive prosthetics that can show off a bit of her vibrant personality.

Grace said: “This is my favourite thing about this whole topic. I really love fashion, and therefor dress to illustrate my personality, so being able to wear a creative prosthetic that shows who I am seems awesome – it’s like a one off accessory that nobody else can wear, basically like vintage Chanel.”

“You should be proud of what makes you different, and I think being able to wear a fun looking prosthetic is something to be proud of! You’re basically saying to the public “my arms cool and I know”.”

Openbionics_Grace_Mandeville_prosthetic_arm_hand_3

Open Bionics’ COO Samantha Payne said that the idea behind the Swarovski hand was to show off the possibilities for prosthetics within 3D printing.

Samantha said: “We printed Grace a socket and robotic hand in three days, and because 3D printing is so affordable we can add Swarovksi crystals and create something really eye-catching that will not break the bank. We also added four fibre optic wires to the socket so that whenever Grace closes her hand, a blue light would shoot up her 3D printed arm.”

“Prosthetics are entering the realms of fashion and we wanted to show how bionic prosthetics can be functional and fun.”

“We’ve been very experimental with Grace’s hand. This is a completely new socket design and this is the first time we’ve experimented with placing the EMG sensors above the elbow. Grace is actually controlling her hand by the muscle signals from her back.”

“The idea is to give hand amputees more option and a choice to have something they’d get some enjoyment out of wearing.”

Video of Grace taken at the show by Robin Fearon.

“We’ve been told a lot by amputees that they want something that will get a compliment not a strange stare, something far away from a ‘flesh’ coloured prosthetic.”

Grace’s sister, Amelia Mandeville, said that having an attractive prosthetic could help turn something that is seen as ‘negative into a positive’. Amelia echoed her sister’s stance for having the option to stand out, asking “Who wants to be the same?”

As Grace eloquently puts it, “Why try to blend in, when you can have a piece of art as an arm instead?”

Grace was given a traditional cosmetic prosthetic when she was little and has one now but says, “I never wear it, I don’t like wearing it, it gets in the way.”

Openbionics_Grace_Mandeville_prosthetic_arm_hand_2

Grace said: “I love what Open Bionics is doing. So many people at the ‘Wearable Tech Show’ thought I had a hand and that I was wearing a fashionable sleeve, making some kind of fashion statement. I had to keep pulling my arm out and showing people that I wasn’t wearing some kind of glove but an actual bionic arm.”

“I found the hand really easy to operate, I tried it on for the first time Monday and I could control the hand straight away. I thought it was going to be really heavy but it wasn’t. I obviously still feel the difference, I was born with a foreshortened forearm so wearing anything is going to feel different and will always be an added weight.”

“I don’t ever wear prosthetics because I don’t feel like I need to. I would however absolutely love a bionic hand like this for events and evening’s out. I love fashion and this looks incredible.”

Openbionics_Grace_Mandeville_prosthetic_arm_hand_4

Open Bionics is still developing their robotic prosthetics and hope to be selling 3D printed hands within a year. They have won multiple awards for their open source 3D printed robotic hands and was recently named as one of the Top 50 international robotics companies to watch along with Google.

Openbionics_grace_mandeville_prosthetic_arm_hand_5



If you liked this article, you may also be interested in:

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

 



tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Open Bionics is a Bristol based startup developing 3D printed, light-weight, and quirky robotic hands for amputees and roboticists.
Open Bionics is a Bristol based startup developing 3D printed, light-weight, and quirky robotic hands for amputees and roboticists.





Related posts :



Interview with Dautzenberg Roman: #IROS2023 Best Paper Award on Mobile Manipulation sponsored by OMRON Sinic X Corp.

The award-winning author describe their work on an aerial robot which can exert large forces onto walls.
19 November 2023, by

Robot Talk Episode 62 – Jorvon Moss

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Jorvon (Odd-Jayy) Moss from Digikey about making robots at home, and robot design and aesthetics.
17 November 2023, by

California is the robotics capital of the world

In California, robotics technology is a small fish in a much bigger technology pond, and that tends to conceal how important Californian companies are to the robotics revolution.
12 November 2023, by

Robot Talk Episode 61 – Masoumeh Mansouri

In the latest episode of the Robot Talk podcast, Claire chatted to Masoumeh (Iran) Mansouri from the University of Birmingham about culturally sensitive robots and planning in complex environments.
10 November 2023, by

The 5 levels of Sustainable Robotics

Robots can solve the UN SDGs and not just via the application area.
08 November 2023, by

Using language to give robots a better grasp of an open-ended world

By blending 2D images with foundation models to build 3D feature fields, a new MIT method helps robots understand and manipulate nearby objects with open-ended language prompts.
06 November 2023, by





©2021 - ROBOTS Association


 












©2021 - ROBOTS Association