My Experience with LIMBOT- Bionic Prosthetic Limb

We were working at Fabonix on new research ideas to propagate our career forward, when we came upon a fourteen-year-old boy, who had lost his right arm at the age of eight. He was leading a life that was close to normal, but not entirely regular and functional because having all four limbs is an important criterion to be marked as healthy. He missed out on regular activities, like writing and painting, which were specific only to his right arm. 

This sparked a degree of sympathy in us, and we were looking for plausible solutions then. When we looked up, We found out that almost 23,500 people are handicapped in India alone each year, which meant that so many people were crippled in their regular lives. Moreover, India loses almost 10 billion dollar of human productivity. When we looked up on the solutions, there were dissatisfactory to say in the least.

The Indian government plainly manufactures a simple prosthetic hook system which mostly malfunctions and is painful, with no aesthetic value at all. When we looked up on foreign markets, they had exceptionally well designed limbs, but the cost was beyond reach- which was definitely a set back to the Indian market. 

We set up a small scale research where we worked on this idea that we would print a 3D limb with a 3D printer. It is to be noted that 3D printing is common these days, and a lot of people are working on it.

But the main challenge was to create an effective prosthetic limb, with affordable rates. Also, we had to study the limbs in great minute details, and we had to replicate each of the joints and the bones, fix biosensors in them, so that the limb would be more close to real, and less artificial. Even, the limb should be able to sense pressure, so that when it grips and object, only ambient pressure is applied.

The limb was designed with great effort, keeping that fourteen-year-old child in mind, so that he would be able to draw again. After all the hard work was done, this limb was tested on the child.

When we asked him what he would do first after his new prosthetic attachment, he had said he wanted to draw again. The prosthetic was attached and he was given a white board to draw. To see his delight and wonderment, we had smiles on our faces. Our hard work had paid off finally.

This little change in our thought process will help several amputees to regain back normalcy in life. A little effort will bring about ripples in people’s life. This BIONIC Prosthetic LIMB is now kept under NID Ahmedabad, for further research, and our only hope is that it changes more lives and brings more smiles to all other disabled people.

Thank you!