A 19 year old recent high school graduate who built a $350 robotic arm controlled with thoughts is showing any one how to build it free. His goal is to let anybody who is missing an arm use the robotic arm at a vastly cheaper cost than a prosthetic limb that can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
When he was 14, Easton LaChappelle built a robotic hand controlled by a wireless control glove. He used LEGOs to back the device, motors from toy airplanes, fishing line for the tendons, and electrical tubing for the fingers. Mr. LaChappelle is so resourceful he could have used anything to build this thing. He could have paid a little cash for a junk car and strip the parts to build a whole bionic body if he wanted to.
Mr. LaChappelle entered the robotic hand into a the 2011 Colorado State science fair where he won third place. He says his inspiration for the hand hit him when he met a 7-year old girl who was born without her right arm. She used a prosthetic limb that cost $80,000. He immediately began to work on a dramatically cheaper alternative.
While perfecting his robotic hand, Mr. LaChappelle contacted a popular YouTube user, with over 90,000 subscribers, called Jeremy Blum, who fixed the programming code that allowed the control glove to wirelessly communicate with the hand.
Aiming to make the hand as inexpensively as possible, Mr. LaChappelle bought an old Nintendo Power Glove and used its sensors. Watch as Mr. LaChapelle showcased the second version of the robotic hand that he entered into his sophomore year science fair.
Now it was time to turn this hand into a fully-operational robotic arm. He wanted to significantly improve on his original design, so he found out it would cost him around $500 to have it made by local 3D printing services. Too much for a high school student on a potato chip budget.
Mr. Blum, who worked with MakerBot (a company that sells 3D printers), had access to its $1200 Thing-O-Matic 3D printer. So Mr. Blum told Mr. LaChappelle how to make his designs for the robotic arm best work with the Thing-O-Matic. Then Mr. Blum would print the parts Mr. LaChappelle designed and shipped them to Colorado where Mr. LaChappelle lived.
Mr. Blum also taught Mr. LaChappelle how to make the arm’s motors stop when it was in the desired position. To do this, Mr. LaChappelle connected potentiometers (which are used to control electrical devices like audio controls and light dimmers) to DC motors on the robotic arm. This turned these motors to servos that allowed the robotic arm to do practically anything a human hand could, like shake hands, and throw balls.
Mr. LaChapelle was invited to present the arm at the third annual White House Science Fair, where it shook hands with U.S. President Barack Obama.
One of Mr. LaChapelle’s objectives is to avoid making something that would require surgery to gain neurological control.
“That’s dangerous, and also costs a lot of money; I don’t have money to do that,” Mr. LaChappelle said at his presentation at Ted in 2013. “I wanted to find a compromise.”
For his latest version, Mr. LaChappelle developed an EEG headset that reads 10 different channels of a human brain. So now his robotic arm and hand can be controlled by a person’s thoughts, which Mr. LaChappelle argues is a huge psychological benefit for users.
In the video, you could see a retired business owner who lost his right arm in an accident grab a light bulb with the robotic arm while wearing a headset that reads his brainwaves.
Mr. LaChappelle has built the latest version of this robotic glove for $350.
On his company’s website, UnlimitedTomorrow.com, you could download the instructions, designs, and software he used, so you could build it too. The guide shows you how to build the hand, elbow, and rotating joint. Instructions on how to build the shoulder will be released soon.
For instance, the guide on how to build the hand lists what tools and parts you’ll need.
Then it gives you step by step instructions on how to build the robotic hand until your hand and forearm is done.
Happily funded by wealthy parents and a group of intellectual acquaintances. I know this kid. It’s a PR Campaign.
Wonderful work! Keep gathering more believers because those partners will help you realize your ambitious goals.
Bitter, much?
hmm, seems a little out of the spirit of the article. surely he still did a cool thing??!!
Could you provide proof?
someone is jealous!
Well Cynthia Spic Moritz you’re a poor spic. I’d rather this white kid get all the funding he needs than you receiving a larger welfare check you poor patronizing bitch. Oh whoops I might have used grammar that was a little too difficult. Puta.
Let’s not let this bigot’s comment be ignored here. Thomas Elric is truly human scum, glad to share his hate from the comfort of his own computer chair!
Thomas Elric no need to be a racist ass.
Thomas, you have gone above & beyond in terms of bad taste. You could have let Cynthia know that you didn’t care for her comment without resorting to racist & stereotypical nonsense.
Next time Thomas, take a deep breathe, count to ten, then give a response. Maybe then your small-minded prejudices will not come out.
Who cares if his parents are wealthy — I’d say it’s a good thing they are, if they’re helping to fund him and the education he’s been given to become so inventive.
He’s clearly doing something good with his life and providing the instructions for anyone to use — and improve on themselves – in this day and age for greed, greed, greed is more than laudable.
And without a PR campaign, who would know about it?
Cynthia,
Do you know me? It sure doesn’t sound like it. I grew up going to public schools and self funded all my projects from summer jobs and award money from science fairs. I’m not sure what your intentions are but it’s obvious you don’t know me and if you only knew how much media I turn down now. I had no idea this article was written but it was shared with me.
Don’t feed the trolls and never, ever read the comments.
Agreed. Keep up the amazing work, Easton.
Amazing work, Easton!!
don’t waste your energy replying to this stupid woman. You have done something monumentally good and deserve all the kudos that comes with it. Keep on doing the good work, ignore the haters and dont let negativity drag you down, you’re better than that
Easton you are doing fantastic work. Thank you and keep going!
there’s always some cunt that needs to open their mouth.
Cynthia Moritz, what have YOU done to help people with disabilities? What have YOU done to help people and make this world better for everyone? The tone of your post seems very patronizing. It’s a P.R. campaign? Really? Well, I hope this kid gets more funding and more help with this project and his future endeavors because it seems like he’s an intelligent and innovative young adult who deserves it.
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PR campaign or no, this is pretty cool
Magnificent points altogether, you just received a logo new|a new} reader. What would you recommend in regards to your put up that you simply made some days in the past? Any certain?
The kid followed some free tutorials online but doesn’t give credit to anyone but himself. http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Animatronics-robotic-hand/
He didn’t do anything but steal other people’s work and go on a PR tour pretending it was his own.
No one else put it all together and taught others how to do it for themselves for $350. He deserves all the credit he’s getting. And do you really not think that corporations don’t steal ideas and other people’s work and improve upon them, and then sell them for a profit? Take your soapbox somewhere else.
Actually, Sam, if you had watched the videos you would have seen him give credit to many sites and the youtube channels he watched.
What? Did you actually look at the link you posted? That’s the most basic design for artificial hands. That’s been used for decades, so to say that he stole something that’s been used by hundreds of people is idiotic. I’m going to go on a venture and say you didn’t read this article, either.
I don’t think anything he has done is strikingly original. People have been making microcontroller artificial hands for awhile now. He obviously got a lot of help from some big name electronics and 3d printing experts to make this happen. Without that he wouldn’t have made it past his first concept which isn’t new or original.
Still its a nice accomplishment to have gotten so far, even with the help he received.
Why the hell should that matter? He made a very good robotic arm design and published the schematics for it online so that the only cost is the materials needed for the parts.
You sound bitter, trying to downplay his achievement by stating it was unoriginal. Tell me when have you ever found any free schematics for these robotic arms that apparently are so numerous? Did any of those companies release the information for the design and made it as cheap as fucking possible with absolutely no profit for themselves?
I’m just going to guess that you’re upset and need to downplay his achievement because you have none for yourself.
Not to mention that his design is readily available for EVERYBODY in this world and only costs $350, on top of that his design blows the competition out of the water. Would you rather pay on average $65,000 for a fucking hook, or $350 for a robotic arm that responds to your thoughts?
The guy made a robotic hand controlled by a glove when he was 14. Using lego and toy airplane parts…. Who cares that it’s not an original concept. How many other people who have made artificial hands have put the instructions out there for the world to use? And he isn’t asking for any compensation for people to use his design.
Cynthia (if that is your real name) why so negative? This kid has done something really amazing and you are giving him grief?? May I suggest you sit down and take a long hard look at your own sad and bitter attitude and the hurt you may have caused this kid. In short get a fucking life
Very nice work young man. Have you explored changing the shape of the hand at all? Would having more or fewer digits offer any benefit? Could the digits be made to curve in either direction? Would a wider thumb offer any benefit? Any other things the servos might allow a hand of this type to do? How about screwing a light bulb into a socket? Keep it up.
Mario
This design is spectacular! You definitely know how to keep a reader entertained.
Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog
(well, almost…HaHa!) Fantastic job. I really loved what you had to say, and
more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!
So he built a working robotic hand at the age of 14, and only won third prize !
Wow, tough audience. What did the winner build, a working cold fusion reactor out of a coke can ?
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