What is the use of 3D printers? Arduino Robotic Arm

Quite often there is a question: why do we need 3D printers? What is just another expensive toy. Perhaps now they have a fairly narrow scope, but this area is quite enough to treat them seriously, in the end, ordinary printers also inherently perform quite specific work that does not prevent their widespread distribution.

So, one of the most vivid examples of the usefulness of 3D printing can serve as a 17-year-old Colorado guy, Easton Lyashapel, who managed to design blueprints for making robotic prosthetic hands on home 3D printers, the cost of which is several times less than that of similar ones on the market.





A talented young man was able alone to establish the process of creating robotic hands, while these prostheses have a number of possibilities that facilitate manipulation with objects - gripping, holding and balancing, which are available only to expensive models. For example, the cost of manufacturing a hand prosthesis on a 3D printer costs about $ 450, while analogs of well-known companies offer prostheses from $ 10,000 !, which makes them inaccessible to a wide range of people.





From 14 years old, Easton has been interested in robotics, in 2010 he made his first robotic arm from LEGO.

It is also interesting that all the work was done on the bare enthusiasm, while Easton did not attend any specialized courses in robotics, 3D printing technologies, or, especially, on the principles of reading brain signals. The main motive for him was an acquaintance with a girl born without one hand, and forced to use a prosthesis for $ 80,000. How many people can find such a sum, a rhetorical question.

The prosthesis is controlled using a neural interface like Emotiv Insight . Of course, it takes a long time, from a week to several months, to learn how to work with such a prosthesis, but it is certainly worth it.



The 3D roboprosthesis was presented at the TED 15-minute talk.



Personally, the US president appreciated the development, recommending technology for use in DARPA.



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At the moment, our hero is undergoing an internship at NASA.