The Story

An accessible powered prosthetic – open-source and affordable. Simple, effective, assistive tech developed to accommodate continuous development. Brought to you by a bunch of hardworking undergraduates enamored with a vision of a future where robotics is widely used to improve the quality of life for all. While new technology endeavors are often profligate, our leg costs about as much as a mid-tier IKEA couch ($550).

Our project and price point rely strongly on the utilization of new tech, such as continuous 3D printed carbon fiber, that has only recently become available. Moreover, our project is completely open-source so that it can be freely manufactured and refined by students, tech hobbyists, and amputees alike. We hope that this project will immediately improve the quality of function for interested amputees and that it might ultimately serve as a platform for proliferating development and future research in the field of assistive technology.

My Part

I am in charge of everything non-structural on this project. I design everything from the power stages to the embedded systems architecture to the wireless communications to the control algorithms.

Several notable accomplishments:

• Custom designed ground reaction force (GRF) sensor built with < 5% of budget

• Implemented a Linux based server-client architecture for wireless communication and data collection for tuning in Python 3.7
• Reliable and accurate trigger emulation for Makita motor controller, reducing the cost and complexity of manufacturing and assembly

The Build (work in progress)

See the full build here.