Page 205 - Handbook of Biomechatronics

202 Georgios A. Bertos and Evangelos G. Papadopoulos

Fig. 15 Prosthetic hands made by 3D printing techniques. (A) Robohand and (B) Cyborg
Beast. (Part (B): Cyborg Beast by Jorge M. Zuniga Ph.D.)

source hand models are available today and include the Robohand, Cyborg
Beast, Flexy Hand, K-1 Hand, Raptor Reloaded, Second Degree Hand,
Osprey Hand, Limbitless Arm, and RIT Arm. These models are available
through web sites such as Thingiverse (thingiverse.com), and the NIH
3D Print Exchange (3dprint.nih.gov).
The Cyborg Beast (Fig. 15B) was one of the first projects, which
acknowledged the need for a low-cost customizable and prosthesis for chil-
dren 3–16years old (Zuniga et al., 2015). The project employed CAD
design and 3D printing technology to develop low-cost devices with prac-
tical and easy fitting procedures. These body-driven devices are colorful,
fun, and provide a general basic functional grasping motion. Although they
offer customization and are cheap ( 200 euros), they lack any significant
functionality. As a result children although initially might feel joy because
of the new colorful device in the long term they do not gain any practical
benefit (especially children >5–6years old) in terms of social exclusion and
independence in the execution of activities of daily living (ADLs).
Another interesting project is Limbitless, which is the first low-cost cus-
tomizable myoelectric device (Limbitless, n.d.). Limbitless is 3D printed,
low-cost, actuated by an RC servo, which is controlled by an Arduino
control board. Its functionality is limited to 1 DoF and therefore its practical
significance is very low. Both of these low-cost prosthetic hands are part of
greater effort initiated by a community of people who want to assist children
with upper-limb deficiencies. The community is called eNable (http://
enablingthefuture.org) and provides low-cost customized prosthetic devices
similar to Cyborg Beast and Limbitless to children around the world. For a
comprehensive review of 3D-printed upper-limb prostheses, see ten Kate
et al. (2017).