Mioelectric Bionic Arm and Ultrasonic Arm for Blind People
e-NABLE Medellín is a registered Colombian not-for-profit/NGO that uses 3D printing technology to create arm prosthetics and other assistive devices for disabled people. We are based in Antioquia, one of the most landmine-affected regions in the world, and helped 20 children, adolescents, and adults reintegrate back into society in 2018.
Everyone on our team has the same vision: to assist over 40 people in 2019 and more than 50 in 2020. We are also aiming to launch our bionic arm prototype, ultrasonic arm and prosthetic leg worldwide to accommodate for a wider variety of amputees. With support from the EnableFund, we can achieve our goals and have a long-term impact through the roll-out of these three new prosthetic designs, both in Colombia and globally.
Description of Proposed Project
In July 2019 we will release our bionic arm prototype “El Medallo” Version 1.0 to the wider enable community, along with our ultrasonic arm, which has an optional audio feedback device for blind patients.
Both are new designs that are based on the mechanical designs from team Unlimbited and Jacquin Buchanan Kwawu arm. They were developed by a team of local Colombian and international volunteers from New Zealand, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, all equipped with a wide range of expertise, from medical engineers to software specialists.
The proposed project is to have a finalized bionic arm design by December 2019 that will be suitable for a wider range of beneficiaries, i.e., those with above-the-elbow amputations or restricted elbow movement. This project involves replacing the mechanical input of the current arms with EMG and/or light signals that trigger movement driven by servo motors.
Over the same time period we will fully developed and improve a vibrating ultrasonic arm, that will also be proved and tested by our beneficiaries.
The initial group of volunteers, who have developed version 1 plus associated plans, schematics and designs, have now left. We are requesting funds to pay local Colombian engineer, Esteban Rojas, who worked with the group and is familiar with the projects, to work full time.
This will allow for the continuity of the projects and a more effective turnover of codes and designs to the next volunteers so that we can improve the prototypes more efficiently, continue to monitor the current versions and create the open source documentation in spanish. All designs, codes, electronics schematics and assembly instructions will be released to the enable community as open source.
To create the final prototypes, we will be using electronics, CAD designs, myoelectric sensors, ultrasonic sensors, Arduinos, and associated coding and documentation. Therefore, due to the large scale of the project, we believe 3 months would be sufficient to have all the designs and user guides ready to launch on our webpage.
Expected results
For our organisation:
Releasing these two new prototypes, alongside the development of the internal capacity of our staff and volunteer base, will widen our recipient demographic and create new opportunities for growth and impact.
This grant will allow us to leverage additional funding and diversify funding sources by using the evidence gathered in project evaluations to demonstrate the success of our work which will allow for further innovation and open source designs in 2020.
It will allow us to locate more potential recipients who are cut off from national healthcare services and/or are unaware of our work.
For the world and the enable community:
There are currently many existing open-source bionic arm designs, however, what we have found thus far is that they are either not easily reproducible or too expensive. For this reason, we aim to design an arm that is low-cost, easy to manufacture without technical expertise, and reliable for the patient. We will upload the designs to our website, the global enable community, and to online 3D printing sites such as thingiverse, to achieve a global impact.
We hope that this project will inspire young people in Colombia and around the world to view and use technology as a force for positive social change and health technology advancements.
Estimate of work effort involved:
3 months – one paid employee working 9am to 6pm, 5 days a week. Many local and international volunteers will be working under his direction.
Estimated timeline for completion & amount of funding being requested
From September 1, 2019 to December 1, 2019 we will deliver the program across three key workstreams, with the key milestones highlighted below.
Workstream 1: Project Management
We use GitHub, a technology development platform, to manage our projects effectively and set milestones for each new prosthetic. We have used it to share, host, and review code and software. We will open the github on both designs to the Enable and wider maker community. This will provide everything you need to produce a mio electric bionic arm for less than US$200 . Parts list, schematics, codes, designs and assembly instructions. This funding will also allow us to release a spanish version of the associated git hubs to have an even wider impact. Part of the funds will pay for the transport of 2 patients who live far away from Medellin and are from low income families. One is a 16 year old boy from Giradota who lost his arm in a work accident after falling from a roof and getting caught in electrical cables and the 2nd is a land mine victim how last both hands and was blinded in the explosion.
Workstream 2: Develop and Pilot Bionic Arm & Ultrasonic Arm (2019)
Milestone 1: Bionic Arm & Ultrasonic Arm Prototype sent to recipient for testing (June 2019)
With EnableFund:
Milestone 2: Recipient to assess functionality over a several month period (September 2019)
Milestone 3: Evaluation: Collect feedback on prosthetic’s performance through a detailed questionnaire (September 2019)
Milestone 4: Further Develop and Pilot Bionic Arm & Ultrasonic Arm: Refine the designs and their parts accordingly. We will create an improved second iteration of the bionic & ultrasonic prosthetic (October & November 2019)
Milestone 5: Communication: We will be ready to release the technical documentation and assembly instructions for these prototypes to the wider e-NABLE community in both English and Spanish (December 2019)
Names of individuals responsible for deliverables
Adam Armfield, the founder and CEO, will be in charge of executing the project, along with Esteban Rojas, General Manager. These are the two paid members of staff and under their authority are around 18 volunteers working towards the same goal.
Amount of funding being requested:
We would like to request a grant of US$3500 which would cover the local engineer´s wages for 3 months so that the project can progress more efficiently. Also, this will go towards the development of new materials for the further improvement of our bionic arm and ultrasonic arm prototypes; family support and outreach travel program (for those in remote areas or low-income families); 3D printing materials; and parts for the prosthetic arms and hands as well as customization materials.
A brief overview of my background with e-NABLE:
e-NABLE was founded in 2017 by Adam Armfield, an Australian citizen, who has dedicated his life over the past 3 years to setting up this organization, without any government or corporate support. He has tirelessly worked towards growing a strong team of 18 volunteers equipped with a wide range of expertise. However, 50 volunteers have already worked for e-NABLE in the past 2 years.
The organization helped 11 people in our first year by providing free, personalized 3D-printed arms. In the second year, we almost doubled our impact and helped 20 people, as well as developing new prototypes for prosthetic legs and other assistive devices. We are on track to help 40 people this year and to continue growing in 2020.
Thank you for your consideration.
Adam Armfield Fri 28 Jun 2019 2:04PM
Hi Jon...Attached is a foto of Version 1.0 of "El Medallo". I am happy to share the documentation with you or the group via a group skype or teamview call at this stage. It is extremely thorough and we are are looking to make a press release and shortly in regards to what we beleive is a world first. A fully documented, 3d printed bionic arm. For this reason i can open the full github yet untill we officially launch the design however i would be happy to run you all through it via a video call. It has been put together by top notch engineers with many years in practice and and PHD students from many countries around the world who travelled to medellin to work with us over the last 12 months. The post you linked above is a different arm which is version 1.0 of our ultrasonic arm. We have this fullu documented as well and i can share this in the same way.
Jon Schull Fri 28 Jun 2019 4:22PM
This looks great, Adam. A presentation at an SPC meeting would be terrific.
I
I've been noticing the productivity of e-NABLE Medellin in recent months and hope and expect this will be funded. I've been watching Kyle's proposal improve and garner votes with each bit of feedback so here are some suggestions.
- Put your proposal into an evolving google doc so that clarifications that emerge in discussion are front and center for new reviewers and decision-makers.
- align a payout schedule with your milestones
- make it clearer what you are making. "bionic" can mean a lots of things. Don't assume we know what you mean or have been following your facebook page and know how much you're already done.
- how many motors (are you aiming for independent finger motion? If so, is there value in a preliminary one-motor grip vs release device )
- what kinds of motors?
- The picture speaks volumes. You must also have some video. Tell us more (or provide targeted links) about your experiences with the device so far.
- how does this /could this relate to the NIOP platform?
- is EMG critical? For which cases (personally I'm an EMG skeptic.
etc.
Adam Armfield Fri 28 Jun 2019 4:34PM
Thanks Jon.
Im not sure what an evolving google doc is. Please provide a link or tips.
The payout schedule can be discusse at the SPC meeting.
Bionic: Mioelectric (non disposible sensors) with 2 servimotors and 2 grips. A pincer grip and a power grip.
When is the next SPC meeting?
Jon Schull Fri 28 Jun 2019 5:09PM
re: Mioelectric Bionic Arm and Ultrasonic Arm for Blind People
SPC meetings are every Friday at 11am EST.
We have one guest scheduled for next week. But I'm cc'ing Jeremy to see when he'd like you to present. I'm also cc'ing Nate to make sure he looks at your loomio proposal.
An evolving Google doc is just a google doc that you revise continuously. (You could just as well keep editing your proposal but Google Docs can easily
- embed diagrams, spreadsheets, etc. formatting,
- collect comments and contributions
- track versions etc.
The point is that instead of a growing thread of ever-more-confusing comments and clarifications, you get an evolving doc that needs less and less clarification
Adam Armfield Fri 28 Jun 2019 5:36PM
Great. Lets lock in the the 12th of July for the SPC presentation then. I wont be available next week at 11am.
So i will just copy and past what wediscussed have done into a google doc and upload this as an attachment to the proposal then?
Kyle Reeser Fri 28 Jun 2019 5:02PM
Hi Adam, very impressive work. Could you provide a more comprehensive cost breakdown regarding the $3,500 in the proposal? If I understand correctly, the amount requested will go toward the following:
Three months of full time work (9 am-6 pm) by local engineer Esteban. What will he be paid for his 3 months of full time work?
Family support and outreach travel. What do you estimate the cost of this portion of the proposal to be?
I gather the remainder of the funds will be used for materials costs in development of the proposed prosthetic devices.
Adam Armfield Fri 28 Jun 2019 5:49PM
- Esteban wage plus compulsory employee benefits for 3 months will be approx. US$2500
- Travel will amount to between US$250-$500 depending on the number of trips required (between 2-3 trips with possible accomadation for 1 night for 1 person who travels over 14 hours to reach us by bus. One of our patients is blinds from a land mine and so we also pay for his wife to attend as both are from extremely poor and remote areas of Colombia)
- The remainder will be used for materiasl and organizational costs. Please be aware that the project to this point has been all self funded and we have 2 functional prototypes working and documented.
Kyle Reeser Fri 28 Jun 2019 5:57PM
Thanks Adam, this is great information and very reasonable for the proposed deliverables. Looking forward to reading more about the proposal in the coming days as you update and make clarifications in the evolving Google Doc Jon suggested.
Adam Armfield Fri 28 Jun 2019 8:28PM
Thanks for the advice. Im not sure how to properly upload or assign permissions but here is the google doc. Please advise how or if i need to upload or change things. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vSPRjNMwGrpluSZlWqx3hVRdUoVrPRmHfHwq6pKoA5s/edit?ts=5d1677c8
Jon Schull Fri 28 Jun 2019 8:34PM
Looks good. Permissions seem fine.
I'd remove the discussion. Make other improvements (as per notes).
Replace Description text on top with overview and link to document.
Jason Bender Sat 29 Jun 2019 2:04PM
Adam, you've got an impressive group and great goals, also impressive by your frequent and early involvement of end users. That being said, there have been countless attempts to make "affordable bionic arms" in the past, so I think some deeper discussion of what will make your device different & successful compared to previous attempts (Hackaday and YouTube are filled with these) should be included.
One major question I have is about the use of standard servo motors. The Kwawu hand is powered closing, this means that you will have to draw power just to maintain a closed grip--I expect battery life, heat, and even servo whine could all be an issue for you with this design. This is the exact issue that killed an extremely elegant and well-funded Hackberry limb.
Don't mean to discourage you, but for the money I'd like to see a deeper discussion of how your design learns from/builds upon similar designs in the past.
Adam Armfield Tue 2 Jul 2019 4:37PM
Thank you Janso and Ebubar for your feedback. i agree there have been many attempts made at this arm. What we found in our research is that all of them were poorly documented or did not function properly. We have adressed many of these issues with a team that consisted of Professional engineers (electronic and sensors based) , mechatronics experts and dedicated students. Where are work differs is that each and every stage and design is documents with an instruction manual and it will all be completely open source. Please show me where a fully open source design exists that does not utilize disposable mio electric sensors and that includes all electronic schematics, STL designs, assembly instructions, component lists, build instructions and sensor calibartion guides (plus more). We were unable to find a fully documented 3D printed mioelectric arm in our investigations.
ebubar Sun 30 Jun 2019 2:35PM
I agree with Jason’s comments. There are just so many bionic limbs out there. Literally hundreds of senior engineering research thesis projects that just basically fizzle out and go nowhere. Everyone wants a low-cost, simple bionic arm and it just doesn’t seem to ever materialize. Largely I suspect due to students graduating and giving up. That being said, it seems you’ve had some good results from your work, are using it with users and are building it with user feedback. Plus you have some passionate volunteers that are dedicated to the project for more than just a grade. Most of the designs i’ve seen online seem to lack these critical aspects.
I share Jason’s thoughts on the controls using a servo. Linear actuators would be more expensive (big fan of the actuonix micro linear actuator), but they lock in place without current so only draw electricity with motion. I believe its what Open Bionics uses, and of all the bionic arm projects, they’ve been the only i’ve seen that have taken it forward to a finished (and medically accepted) option (Limbitless Solutions is also notable). For those reasons, I’d suggest looking at their Ada or Brunel hands to draw some inspiration (which you may have done). In fact, a brief discussion of how you have perhaps drawn on other projects to get to your findings might be valuable.
Final suggestion/question I’d have is what kind of outcomes are you hoping to see? User experience/functionality, I suspect, is your primary motivation. It may be useful to look at how commercial devices are assessed based on outcomes and compare your own designs on these outcome scales (grip force, speed of open/close, etc.).
Adam Armfield Tue 2 Jul 2019 4:37PM
Thank you Janso and Ebubar for your feedback. i agree there have been many attempts made at this arm. What we found in our research is that all of them were poorly documented or did not function properly. We have adressed many of these issues with a team that consisted of Professional engineers (electronic and sensors based) , mechatronics experts and dedicated students. Where are work differs is that each and every stage and design is documents with an instruction manual and it will all be completely open source. Please show me where a fully open source design exists that does not utilize disposable mio electric sensors and that includes all electronic schematics, STL designs, assembly instructions, component lists, build instructions and sensor calibartion guides (plus more). We were unable to find a fully documented 3D printed mioelectric arm in our investigations.
Poll Created Mon 1 Jul 2019 4:55AM
Automatic extraction of a scaling factor from a webcam snapshot Closed Thu 4 Jul 2019 4:02AM
How useful and desirable is a way to automate that part of the workflow in fitting a given hand prosthesis model?
At Haifa3D, a registered non-profit located Haifa Israel, we have a prototype setup that automagically captures dimensionally calibrated snapshots of hands, allowing for getting the scale factor from the scan directly.
We contemplate adding additional modules that will enable a full snapshot-to-print automation.
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1. How useful is the scale factor automation step? | 50.0% | 1 |
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2. Does the community wishes to have access to this feature? | 50.0% | 1 |
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| 3. Should we attempt to automate the full snapshot-to-print workflow? | 0.0% | 0 | ||||
| Undecided | 0% | 140 |
|
2 of 142 people have participated (1%)
Bob Rieger Tue 2 Jul 2019 12:54PM
I'm not really sure what response would be appropriate.....I think it is a great idea, although would it mean the recipient now has a more delicate or complex photographic procedure to follow?
Barry Maxwell Wed 3 Jul 2019 1:33PM
How does one vote on this?
Barry Maxwell Wed 3 Jul 2019 1:33PM
How does one vote on this?
Barry Maxwell Wed 3 Jul 2019 1:34PM
How does one vote on this? It seems I have to vote, edit, select the next line and vote again. Is that how it is supposed to work?
Barry Maxwell Wed 3 Jul 2019 1:34PM
How does one vote on this? It seems I have to vote, edit, select the next line and vote again. Is that how it is supposed to work?
Barry Maxwell Wed 3 Jul 2019 1:35PM
How does one vote on this? It seems I have to vote, edit, select the next line and vote again. Is that how it is supposed to work? Very ungainly if so.
Barry Maxwell Wed 3 Jul 2019 1:35PM
How does one vote on this? It seems I have to vote, edit, select the next line and vote again. Is that how it is supposed to work? Very ungainly if so. Also it won't let me select all three to vote yes.
Jon Schull Mon 1 Jul 2019 3:45PM
Have you looked at others like this one?
Adam Armfield Tue 2 Jul 2019 4:45PM
Hi John,
Yes. We were unable to obtain the full designs and build instructions online in your pist. We also have found this group to be un responsive to collaboration with other groups in Colombia such as Enable Medellin or Enable Colombia/M3D. We have received calls from several people who have been on their waiting list for over 1 year and whilst we have actively invited them to share the workload they have not been willing to open their waiting list. We also have built several of their non enable approved arms and found that whilst they look pretty they offer lower levels of functionality and also the full designs and assemble instructions are not provided. Can we present at the next SPC meeting so i can present our work and gain greater under standing of the issues we can adress as we progress the project ?
Jon Schull Tue 2 Jul 2019 6:43PM
A presentation would be great.
So I'm cc'ing Jeremy.
Also, have you compared notes with Nate? He's working on something relevant and you guys might want to join forces....
Adam Armfield Tue 2 Jul 2019 7:22PM
No i have not met nate. We would love to collaborate and share notes. Oh on a side note here are 2 more designs that our team have made this year 1. A collection box that any enable chapter can use in local cafes, restaurants, schools etc 2. A device to enable people with one of the enable prosthetic hands and arms to use a knife or fork more easily. Its designed with a tapered hole so many size/brands of cutlery should fit. Where should i post these in the wider wiki factory? See photos and links below
Jon Schull Tue 2 Jul 2019 9:40PM
These are great. I suggest you just create them as projects in wikifactory, tag them #e-NABLE, and if you like, ask us to ask wikifactory to transfer ownership to e-NABLE.
Adam Armfield
Adam Armfield replied to you in: Mioelectric Bionic Arm and Ultrasonic Arm for Blind People ( https://www.loomio.org/d/USZwPpVk/comment/2037158?membership_token=umJFnBE5dbTaoxeorHA2tqC1&utm_campaign=discussion_mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_source=comment_replied_to )
No i have not met nate. We would love to collaborate and share notes. Oh on a side note here are 2 more designs that our team have made this year 1. A collection box that any enable chapter can use in local cafes, restaurants, schools etc 2. A device to enable people with one of the enable prosthetic hands and arms to use a knife or fork more easily. Its designed with a tapered hole so many size/brands of cutlery should fit. Where should i post these in the wider wiki factory? See photos and links below
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Nate Munro Sat 6 Jul 2019 11:24PM
Hi Adam, sorry I was so delayed responding on this. I think our projects will compliment each other nicely. https://www.loomio.org/p/RDIoe6lH/12-new-niop-devices
You've got some very innovative ideas that I would be happy to collaborate with you on. Using vibrating signals for the blind is down-right ingenious.
I've got answers for you on most of the myo/bionic issues brought up in these threads too. I'm sure we can adapt your components to fit in the palm the way I have it laid out, but it's a completely different mechanical design in the hand. I'm also making a power pack module that would be useful for you too. I'd love to hear what kinds of batteries and parts you can get, because I want to source parts for my designs where you are. I think we'll both benefit in a lot of ways from working together.
I swear by Columbian craftsmanship myself too! My amazing assistant Lorenzo is Columbian, so we'll be like in satellite offices! You can also email me at [email protected]. Nice work on the arm and I'll look forward to hearing from you soon!
Jon Schull · Thu 27 Jun 2019 7:08PM
Very impressive! Seeking more background.
I don't see attached photos.
This post seems relevant.
Is draft documentation available?