A robotic prosthetic hand printed in 3D
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At 31, Nicolas Huchet may still have the laid-back look of a teenager but that's not to say that he shouldn't be taken seriously. The young sound engineer is among ten 'innovators under 35' recently honored by the prestigious U.S, research center MIT, which named him French 'social innovator' for 2015. He is the man behind the BionicoHand, a robotic prosthetic hand that can be manufactured cheaply using widely available tools (like 3D printers) and is based on designs that will be made freely available online.
At the age of 18, Huchet lost his right hand in an accident at work. 'As soon as I saw the prosthesis offered by the French national health service, I knew that I would never like it, even though it did allow me to do quite a few things,' he recalls, looking down at the stylized, flesh-colored silicon hand in his lap.
A team of twenty volunteers
It was another ten years before Huchet started the project that has completely changed his life. 'For years I rejected my disability – I wasn't really interested in it. It was only in 2012 that I began to get involved, when I saw new polydigital prostheses coming onto the market with fingers that could move independently, meaning that users could do things like tie up shoelaces. I was desperate to have one'. While the prostheses available on the national health service do give users a certain degree of independence, they work more like pincers. Unfortunately for Huchet, buying an innovative ultra-sophisticated polydigital model simply wasn't an option.
It was a visit to the Rennes 'fab lab' (a production workshop that is open to the public) that kick-started the project. 'I was walking past a 3D printer and it got me wondering whether it would be possible to make a robotic hand that I had already found open source designs for online'. The designer of this robotic hand (InMoov), another Frenchman named Gaël Langevin, agreed to advise Huchet on how to turn it into a prosthesis.
With the help of some twenty fab lab volunteers who contributed their expertise in fields such as electronics, coding, motorization and prosthetics, an initial prototype was put together in the space of five months at a cost of about $336. Sensors placed in the forearm convert the energy created by tensing muscles into electric signals that tell the fingers to move. The BionicoHand was born.
'We like to tinker'
When we meet him at the Atelier BNP-Paribas offices in Paris on the day of the MIT prize-giving ceremony, we are slightly disappointed to see that Huchet isn't wearing his robotic hand. 'The current prototype isn't quite developed enough for everyday use – there's still some work to be done,' he explains. 'Its main value lies in proving the concept. That's why we're starting a second phase of work to improve the BionicoHand by taking into account the needs of future users. It has to be lightweight, quick, strong, functional and aesthetically pleasing.'
The 'My Human Kit' foundation was set up to support the project team, who must overcome unprecedented challenges. 'Normally, making robotic prostheses is a high-tech process, but with us it's all about "low tech". We try to replace the components with less expensive substitutes that can be found in DIY stores. We like to tinker,' Huchet explains.
Beyond the technological challenges, Huchet is thrilled by the way in which this project has turned his life around. 'My disability now has a meaning and I've regained my self-confidence. I was getting over a long and difficult period in my life, both professionally and personally. This project has been a kind of "medicine". It's made me want to change things for disabled people.'
A new 'Handilab' for disability aids
The passion inspired by the BionicoHand has opened up new avenues for My Human Kit, which now plans to develop disability aids commercially in the medium term. 'The foundation is going to broaden its scope to encompass all kinds of disability aids, with five different projects, including a wheelchair, an auditory prosthesis and bionic lips. All of the designs will be available as open source documents, but we will also sell finished models'. The final version of the BionicoHand will cost somewhere between $1,120 and $1,680, as compared with about $12,320 on average for entry-level models currently available on the market.
This will be made possible by the creation of a 'Handilab', a research and development facility dedicated to disability aids that, unlike fab labs, will not be open to the public to start with. 'At first, our aim is to develop our expertise,' Huchet explains. This will be done by working closely with an international community of fab labs and researchers who are joining forces to make advances in this field. Huchet's desire to keep costs down is motivated in large part by the needs of disabled people in developing countries. The foundation, which plans to take on an engineer, is now launching a fundraising campaign to make this new project a reality. There is no cash prize for the MIT award and the project is estimated to require funding of between $170,830 and $213,000 per year.