Quick Disconnect Prosthetic

grabcad

April 9th-Our project received Honorable Mention at the Synopsys Science Fair and we were invited to present at Silicon Valley Comic-Con. We designed and printed a light saber adapter for the event.--------------------Goal-Becoming an amputee is life changing, and completing simple everyday tasks can turn into tedious chores when a person has lost one or both of their arms. The purpose of our project is to help these amputees make their everyday lives easier by creating a quick disconnect prosthesis. The target design for our prosthetic was to create interchangeable attachments by using a drill chuck quick disconnect system.Design-An attachment like a split hook would normally have a screw on the end, but we did not have access to an actual prosthetic, so to create our device we cut off the bottom of a water bottle and used it as a makeshift body powered prosthetic. Next, we created an adapter in order to attach the drill chuck onto the cap of the water bottle. After, we 3D printed a variety of attachments and attached hex bits to them in numerous ways. The five ping pong paddles represent different ways of attaching a hex bit to a tool. We used the tension from the prosthetic to pull down the drill chuck by tying a string through a thick 3d Printed ring which was placed onto the drill chuck. This string would run from the user's arm to the other end of their body attached to a strap.Function-By extending the arm wearing the current prosthetic, the user would put tension on the string which would pull the front part of the drill chuck down allowing the user to pull the attachment out of the drill chuck. The user can also put tension on the ring by pushing against a sturdy surface such as a wall.For the stylus holder, we realized that it needed to be conductive, so we connected a wire from the stylus to our upper arm.With this system, users around the world can use websites such as Thingiverse and Grabcad to design, modify, and 3D print custom prosthetic attachments.We have also attached an article on the history of prosthetic arms that was written by Jason for our school newsletter (https://www.stematix.org/).We would like to thank Brian Burkhardt and Seth Hills (Rehab Engineers, VA Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia) for giving us feedback on our project.The attached cad files were designed by us in Tinkercad. Two of the models shown in the photos are remixes of downloaded models to show how you could take any design, modify (shorten the handle), and add a hole for the hex bit. We did not include the cad files, but have given credit to the authors below.Names: Jason Co, Sohan NannraSchool: 49ers SLI at Juan Cabrillo Middle School (www.49erssli.com)Teacher: Michelle ScilingoCredits:Concept: Quick Disconnect Interface (Snappy Tools)Paddle: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1353376/#filesShovel: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:112525