As a teenage hobbyist building robots at home in Bristol, Joel Gibbard had a leftfield thought when pondering his next project. How would he continue to make models if he lost a hand?

“The critical thing to me in continuing to play with robotics and tinker with making things was to use my hands. So I thought it would make sense to make a robotic hand so that in the event I ever lost one, I would continue to use that,” he said.

From that grim thought eight years ago, Gibbard has developed a robotic hand for amputees and people born without one - and he can produce the prosthesis for a fraction of the current market price for such a device by using a 3D printer.

Once an image of the recipient’s arm has been taken using a 3D scanning technique, the rigid “bone” structure of the hand – which is made of nylon – and the outer “skin” – which is made of a strong, rubbery plastic –are printed together and can be run off overnight.

The rest of the prosthesis is made up of steel cables that operate the fingers and react when sensors detect movements in the muscles on the arm.

Gibbard, 25, first tinkered with the idea while studying robotics at Plymouth University, and he realised from the outset that price would be an impediment.

“You had this technology which was really enabling and for many people incredibly life changing. But it was too expensive for anyone to afford, too expensive for the NHS to provide, and so people did not have access to it,” he said.

After leaving university, Gibbard mulled over the problem for a while and decided to try to solve it using a 3D printer, technology which by then becoming more affordable. After quitting his job, saving £1,500 for a printer and moving back in with his parents, he started work on a prototype.

When he shared the files for his initial models online, however, he realised it was not enough to give people blueprints because most people were not in a position to make their own.

“The vision was the same in terms of providing amputees with low cost and accessible prosthetics, but the implementation changed a little bit because I wanted it to be a sustainable company where we could actually provide people with prosthetics and support them and keep developing the technology,” he said.

Last September saw the breakthrough for Open Bionics, the company Gibbard set up to commercialise his work, when an amputee fitted with a fully functional prototype was able to shake hands with his brother for the first time.

The prosthesis, which weighs the same as a human hand, ais attached to muscles in the arm using medical electrodes. When the muscles in the arm are flexed, an electrical signal is given off which is picked up by the sensors that relay the movement to the robotic arm.

The first movement Gibbard achieved was a simple clench. When the muscles are flexed, there is a slight delay before the hand reacts in order to avoid “false positives” in which it moves when it is not supposed to.

“You don’t want to be holding a cup of tea and then it drops the tea, so you want to make sure you give it a certain amount of signal before it will respond,” Gibbard said. The unit acts like a puppet, with solid fingers and flexible joints operated by pulleys that mirror the actions made by a hand.

Each prosthesis is made up of two parts, the hand itself and the socket with which it is attached to the arm. A mirror image of the opposing hand is taken and then the prosthesis is shaped along the same lines.

“That is quite important to amputees. They like it to be a part of them. It is not just a robotic hand, it’s their robotic hand,” Gibbard said.

Open Bionics aims to have its first products on sale next year, becoming the latest entrant in the market for robotic or bionic hands. By its own estimates, the company will be able to sell its prostheses for £2,000 before tax, compared with the £20,000 to £50,000 currently charged for similar products.

The business is one of a cluster of robotics companies operating out of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University of the West of England.

People born without a limb and those who have lost them in an accident can use the device, he says. “We have spoken to people who have lost their hands and they have said [it] has rendered them completely depressed, incapacitated, almost suicidal, Gibbard said.

“Then getting a robotic hand has completely turned their life around and made them feel like they have purpose again and given them the ability to do things which they have felt they could not do.”

Taking printing to a new dimension

3D printing first emerged 32 years ago when Chuck Hull, a US engineer, pioneered a new method of production called stereolithography and printed a small eye-wash cup.

Since then, 3D printers have become affordable enough to be used in the home. They are also used to make aircraft parts and medical models of organs for surgeons to examine before they conduct operations. There are suggestions that the method could be used to build houses block by printed block and to mass-produce pharmaceuticals.

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