GCSP research stipend | Summer 2022

Open-Source Cost-Effective 3D-Printed Anthropomorphic Neuroprosthetics

An anthropomorphic neuroprosthetics arm is a bionic arm that will help people replicate much of the function of a native human arm. Artificial limbs are essential to improve the quality of life of people living without limbs. Bionic limbs such as bone-anchored prostheses use implants directly inserted into the living bone for more stability. Limb amputation requires a lifetime of care. For each amputation, the cost of prosthetic care has been estimated to range between $1.4 and $2.8 million over a lifetime. From the surgeon’s viewpoint, the current state of bionic limbs is that amputations have a devastating impact on patients’ health with consequent psychological distress, economic loss, difficult reintegration into society, and often the low embodiment of standard prosthetic replacement. Proposing a cost-effective, open-source, 3D-printed anthropomorphic neuroprosthetics arm that can be manipulated like an ordinary human arm and creating an open-source muscle-machine interface module that is cost effective and could help patients have their own custom attachable bionic arm and research aid in their rehabilitation.