BioTech Prototype

Me and my friends are working on a fun project together based on making a prosthetic arm to potentially help kids or adults in the future who are disable and need help. We were creating ideas to see what changes or differences we can make for society and make our community better and have a positive impact on people. We started off with a mannequin with no arm or legs and as a group decided to do arms since we thought it would be more collaborative and fun to work on with multiple ideas and fun designs we could possible do.

Materials

Balsa wood (4 pieces about arm's length bc of arm reasons)

Wooden dowel (2x the length of your arm)

Wielding wire or any flexible wire

Foam/ styrofoam

Pipe cleaners

Other wooden pieces and bits (you will need a decent amount)

More foam

paint

paint brushes

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Tools

Drill (2 bits: a bit for the dowels and a thinner bit for the wire)

Hot glue

Handsaw

Sandpaper

As a group me and my friends thought of possible ideas that could be useful, thoughtful, and fun gadgets that a disable person will need in he or she life and be useful to them depending on their circumstance. For example a extendable blade at the side of the arm could be useful for self protection which would be cool but also an dangerous idea so we had to be careful of what we wanted to build. Another example could be a bubble maker for young children that could blow bubbles at the side of the arm that when they press a button bubbles start to blow! now they can have extreme fun whenever their board or just be a cool kid whenever their hanging out with their friends and want to have a memorable time with them. These are all just ideas that me and my friends came up with and wanted to have a fun project to work on.

Glue 4 pieces of rectangular prism shaped wood together and one square shaped piece of wood in a big square. This will help start the foundation of the arm so it wouldn't snap in half easily. It is important that you pick and choose strong wood together with a tight seal so it can with stand a lot of pressure to make it hard to break and so when the person is wearing it , it wouldn't snap their arm in half causing a catastrophe in the project

For the prosthetic "flesh" of our arm we used foam to cover the stick. You can use any material you see fit. We tested out cardboard, but we still stick with foam since it provided more durability and protection to the "bone" we made sheets of foam surrounding the main stick in a formation like so.

In my opinion this was the most fun part of the arm. First we measured my arm on paper and made a tick mark every flexion creases(Line on the finger) we saw. Then we measured the distance between each crease and marked them on a long piece of Balsa wood afterwards cut and trim a block of wood, or glue multiple pieces together. Drill 5 holes in the center of each block you cut out of the wood where you want to put the wire/ finger "bones" in. Then cut 5 pieces of wire, each a couple inches longer than the total length of all three finger parts to resemble a real life hand. Afterwards "thread" the pieces through and wrap some pipe cleaners around each join, adding from some cushioning and aesthetic design to the process to help prevent seeing the wire holding the finger together.

The Elbow of the design is quite simple.

All you need is a drill and drill bit that has the same circumference as the wooden dowel or any rod that you have.

Trim the rod and make an indent for the end/ stoppers if needed.

Drill a hole and then attach end/ stoppers to the endpoint of the dowels on each side.

You could also make some dents and make the stoppers flush with the arm.

Measure your wrist length and width to get an accurate measurement on the wrist for the prototype

Make a block of wood that's about as thick as the hand you made, cut it to the correct measurement of your wrist that you made but not quite as wide. Make it as long as you want (preferably wrist length)

Then drill a hole through the center of it for the wire to go through.

Put the wire in the hole, the wire should be longer than them, and go all the way through and more by a few inches.

Drill a hole in the "Bone" of the arm, and in the hand.

Then put some hot glue in both the holes.

Plug the wire in.

You could also use more wire if you don't want it to spin.

You could add a block of foam for a shoulder pad, as it helps with covering the attaching of the arm.

But to attach the arm:

Drill a hole in the arm, the thickness of the wooden dowel

Then drill another hole perpendicular from the inside of the arm

Make a loop with the metal wire (don't cut the wire just yet, you still need to wrap it around the neck)

Put the looped wire into the 2nd perpendicular hole you made, aligning the loop to the other hole like shown in the diagram

Insert the dowel into the first hole, "threading" it into the loop midway through the hole, and out the other end.

Add stoppers on either side, and like before you can choose to make it flush to the arm.

paint the "arm"

Make wrap the other end of the looped wire and loop it around through inside and out the subject of the matter requiring an arm. Add a strap of whatever to cover the wire so it's not as noticeable. There you go! A really nice arm that 'can' move!