Max Bionic – prosthesis on enthusiasm
An engineer from Norilsk has created a cheap bionic 3D-printed prosthesis
Three years ago, a simple guy named Maxim Lyashko got into trouble: as a result of an accident while working in a mine, he lost his arm. Many of us at this turn of events would have lowered the remaining arm, but Maxim did not lose heart and decided to make his own bionic prosthesis.
As it often happens in our beautiful country, the reason for the feat was the lack of options. "Before, I, like all ordinary people, absolutely did not think about prostheses, their types, price and accessibility, or rather inaccessibility for the disabled. But life forced me to figure it out. And do you know what I found out? It turns out that high-tech prostheses are not produced in our country. They put only cosmetic "hangers" for free, from which there is no benefit. And if a person wants a controlled functional prosthesis, then he must pay tens of thousands of dollars for it," Maxim says on his website.
Alas, this is exactly the case. The idea of cheap but functional prostheses has been around for a long time, but despite universal approval it receives limited support. It's all the fault of money, money. In order to provide the masses with even cheap prostheses, considerable investments are required, and large companies prefer not to get involved with such charity events, unless they have a guarantee of wide advertising or generous budget support. Yes, charitable organizations are doing everything in their power, but the forces of enthusiasts themselves, or rather finances, are limited. Perhaps the only example of a serious undertaking in the field of affordable and functional domestic prosthetics can be considered the achievements of the company "Motorika".
Nevertheless, one by one, craftsmen around the world are raising their own artificial hands. Our hero was no exception. Faced with a choice between useless and excessively expensive prostheses, Maxim decided to redraw the map: "Thank God, my brains remained in place, and I decided to develop my own bionic prosthesis project, which will be no worse than foreign analogues, and will cost ten times cheaper."
It took two years for treatment after the injury, but in between operations our hero drew diagrams, soldered boards and printed prototypes of a new, artificial hand. Like any strong–minded person, Maxim gathered around him a team of like-minded designers, electronics engineers, roboticists and even neurosurgeons. The task of the team? Develop a bionic prosthesis worth less than $1,000.
The first successes are already evident, as you can see by watching the video at the end of the article. The 3D-printed prosthesis is equipped with an original self-locking finger traction system, electromyographic sensors and an elastic retention system, and it takes only ten minutes to set up the device. Now the Max Bionic team is preparing for clinical trials: "The recruitment of a test group of people who will have the first batch of bionic prostheses installed for free in the summer is starting. The installation will take place in Moscow. A team of enthusiasts will be engaged in the installation."
Will Maxim Lyashko's team be able to make their development publicly available? The question, as always, is money. The creators complain about the lack of interest from investors, but they are not going to give up: they plan to finalize the prototype in both serial and open versions, although so far the development is being carried out out of their own pocket. Despite everything, the developers intend not only to finish the job, but also to adapt their invention for children aged 7 to 14 years. More detailed information can be found on the website "Max Bionic".
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19.07.2016