The Robo-Prosthetic Development Kit was a design put together for the "Dimension 3D Printing Extreme Redesign Contest." It is a wire driven assembly designed for experiments in prosthetic control. I was lucky enough to be awarded the first prize scholarship for my submission and have since dedicated those resources towards the development of the Bioraptor multi-tool 3D printer.

At the moment the Solidworks files are not ready for presentation, however the raw step files are not so bad and will hopefully provide a bit of inspiration to other with similar goals.

If you have questions or comments please feel free to drop me a line, just remember as a full time student it might take me a bit of time to respond. Thanks for your interest and best of luck, Dale

New Museum Challenge Info: I suppose on the most basic level this design is a (crude) derivative of my own hand as I spent more than a few minutes staring at it and wiggling fingers while sketching the models up. The primary improvements are that this hand is designed to make it easier to integrate electronic feedback mechanisms into the prosthetic. There are open screw holes everywhere to allow for small circuit boards and sensors to be mounted so that in addition to movement, the user would gain some sense of sensory input.

While the initial requirements of the design required it to be made without embedded electronics or a specific recipient in mind, it's hard to imagine the this design being made in the time I took without a 3D printer. The final models seen in the pictures are actually scaled up versions of the original parts. Without having my colleges 3D printer to run several iterations and find the optimal work scale the models would have had to have been machined and in all likelihood, time constraints would have required me to just make one and hope that it came out perfectly the first time.

I would also like to mention that, in an effort to support my college's efforts to obtain grants for a FABLab in Worcester, MA, should I win, I will be donating the Makerbot to that future lab the day it's doors open. I plan, in the intervening time, to use the Makerbot to complete my square yard print area "Bioraptor." If you have any questions about that effort please contact Carol King via Quinsigamond Community College at (508) 854-7526.

It is recommended that each part of the assembly be printer separately so that they may be oriented for optimal part strength. All components were modeled and tested for snap fit tolerance using a Dimension 3D printer so printing a single joint set as a test is recommended if you are working with a different system.