DIY Robotic Arm 3D Printed (an Initial Prosthetic Prototype) 

When I first clicked the video I was blown away at first glance, this project has insane potential, please dont give up!

You are really making a change in the way we think about robotics. I thank you for that.

This must have been frustrating but your progress is actually amazing! Respect for pulling through and sharing the project with all of us! Love it ^^

Brother don't be too hard on yourself man. I proved how clear and concise the tutorial was. I am in love with the design, but most importantly you taught me a lesson of perseverance and dedication. For that I am eternally grateful my friend👍🙏🤖👀🛠📖

thaks for showing what most people don't see in great and successful ideas or projects, all the way you have to go trough in order to success, they just see a finish good but never thinks about how hard is the effort invested, you are the kind of people that this world needs, greetings from Mexico!!

Great video. I'm planning to do something similar in the future. Even though your attempt did not meet your expectations, I learnt a lot of techniques, ideas and prob saved me from a bunch of mistakes (Failure is the key to success!). Thanks mate

Brilliant design, truly professional grade. I could only image a fully built robot made by you.

Hey Will, BTW great job! This is one step closer to your goal of a final product. I would like to try this and modify it on my own to maybe improve it. If I can I will come back with helpful feedback. I'm speechless at how awesome this design is! Keep up the good work!

Man, this is still great! I didn't get very far with my first attempt at a prosthetic arm really similar to yours. The CAD model looked pretty, but it needs a lot of work. I respect you for sharing this, especially since it wasn't working perfectly. Mine barely worked at all! I am yet to get a chance to redesign and re-try one, but I really want to. I hope by now since this was a few years ago, that you've made good progress!

Very good video, don't be bummed about it not turning out as good as you expected on the first try, first try is always a learning experience. Thankyou for sharing this, even if you consider it a failure; I for one would rank this among the best robot hand tutorials on youtube, because it demonstrates not only the craft of building but also the design process in action (love the ongoing evaluation). Until we meet again, keep building. :)

Good to see your ideas around having motors in the hand itself. I've often thought the hand should have some of the motors in the hand itself to make the most of the space and reduce power loss from cable transmission. Interesting project, will follow.

Well mate, all I can say is WELL DONE! You have accomplished what I am looking to do (Hands, Arms, Legs, Feet et al). It is NOT a small feat to print and build a piece of human anatomy. You should be congratulating yourself for your tenacity alone :) Being 'old school' (a dinosaur lol) I will do it without electronics, electric only. 18 volt cordless batteries, limit switches, ABS, simple, rough, but effective. My hat goes off to you big fella. Keep going, you have a very bright future ahead of you should you choose to seize the opportunity... Best of luck Will. Keep up the great work!

Glad you posted your failure here it could easily be fixed and rebuilt. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for the video, it is not a failure, it is just an initial step for success

NICE , NEVER GIVE UP , I LOVED IT

Hi Will. Although you consider this project a partial failure I'm sure you can see that many ppl here consider it a success. For me, you have offered some unique and, I believe, valid design ideas which I will consider in my own projects. I agree 100% that the need for a functional wrist joint is important and your solution of the ball and springs is indeed inspirational. Thanks for sharing. We are ALL just working on the shoulders of giants. (and for the record, those giants had many, many failures on their way to success.) Keep the faith.

ha, my logo looks the same as the guy before me. I was just gonna say that you really learned a tremendous amount about unexpected problems, unintended consequences methods of failure, modes of interaction. That's a huge model. You could probably develop equations for the things that go wrong based on how complex it is. that said it's an amazing effort, and it'll be interesting if you keep the momentum on new designs. One interesting aspect is that the fingers and thumb have and wrist have specific pivot points. They're kind of tricky to find. virtually no one gets it all correct. So many curves and twists and angles are truly amazing. Wonderful video.

This video has been really inspirational in my final year orthotic project, so thank you for posting it! I cite this video in my work!

Your project was very ambitious and highly successful. Overall amazing and inspiring! Well done!

Prototyping is all about learning as you go and modifying. Sometimes before you build. Thanks for completing the original design and sharing so we can all learn. I have some ideas of my own which I have concentrated on for many hours to have 2 types of clutches related to each joint in legs, hips, ankles. With combinations of Brake Clutch to LOCK each joint in place. And Drive Clutch to engage the pulley to the shaft. With free rolling pullies on each joint to get to the lower ones. I noted none of the joints move more than 45 deg + 90 deg = 135 deg. So the DRIVE mechanism for each drive shaft to the clutches also only engages for 135 degrees. Meaning Nothing but the motor turns more than that. Another drive shaft and clutch for reverse direction. Each clutch is about being moved by a lever in progression via programming to engage drive, disengage brake and so on. In effect ONE MOTOR could be used to drive all the cables to all the joints. And could spin fast to be a stabilising Gyro with a gear box for torque for the 135 deg movements. It a very interesting puzzle to consider.

Nice video keep doing things like this!

Its great to see this design in the video and how you constructed this arm. I am more interested in the prosthetics field, but I would love to make an electronic arm myself; and I have from scratch a long time ago. I am still working on designs to this day, and you are just a great inspiration for me to keep doing this. Keep up the good work. 👍

Dude! good job! i'm actually excited to make my own now! i got the palm of my hand printing right now, i'm surprised out compact your arm is. great work.

6:43 Got em 👌

Excellent Video !! Seriously inspiring... Keep sharing such projects.

Do not be hard on yourself! Kreep up the great work, u rock!

You did an amazing job.....this is how you and others will learn. Fantastic!!!!!! Well Done!

I like the idea that wrist is interesting. From personal experience power of the grip is not from the hand but from the forearm. 4^th & 5^th metacarpals (full Boxer's fracture) and a growing list... Think open along with wrist up/and so below to close. On the wrist pieces make it so the small side goes to the ball. Maybe scrap the springs for curved telescoping about where Tib./Fib. are on top and bottom respectively. To accommodate for your lines (tendons). Really cool knowledge. Physical therapy along with the correct workout. After 9 years. Start to feel like Doctor Strange. Hope this was helpful.

GREAT video exactly what I was searching for. Thx

I like it not bad for a first attempt!

Excellent work. You learn more from your failures than success. Thanks for the video.

This is amazing. Keep working on it. You hardwork will never go waste. Keep it up😃

Excelent work. The result was not bad at all, you did a great job and a great video too. Thank you for sharing!

success and all good videos on youtube suck... you showed the short comings too that enlighten a careful viewer and a curious student and makes him aware of what all problems people might face while creating something. you did a fantastic job. thanks

keep at it some times its best to walk away for a while then come back to it with a clear mind

Tanks very much Master.. Good..I'm is Ciamis West Java Indonesia.

I dont consider it failed, success is a process, now you know the issue, you can address it. nice video. the community thanks you.

Amazing work so far! I'll be following your work closely from now on!

I feel like you should revisit this so you can prove to yourself and fix all the flaws in your design/electronics. This was amazing by the way. But it can be excellent if you're willing to spend more time on it and fail thousands of times over and over until you solve each flaw in your robotic hand.

Kudos to your dedication..! Great work. Keep pushing.

Great video and a great effort of building this arm. Congratulations and continue the good work.

Excellent work. To me the question "is it all worth it", never factors. No matter what challenges or difficulty, my end goal is to make a more functional prosthetic which can benefit people. I give up,I let them down. So it's just another challenge to me if I can't solve something

Thanks Will for this tutorial. I was looking for an arm which is cheap to build and I found the one.

What an amazing work , sir . I am planning forward to do something like this in my college .Thanks a lot

very good! I enjoyed your video and the work involved to make it and the hand!

Wow great job, this is awesome!

As a robot i aprove your creation

Thanks man for this video , appreciate you for the effort and "never give" up attitude

Hey just a thought, you don’t need to use a servo for each finger, you could have a single servo control multiple or all fingers. Depends on how much force you’d expect though.

Excellent job man, seriously this is awesome, i am going to try to build open this design!

As a disabled person with an incomplete right hand. I think the focus should be lower forearm or just above the wrist prosthetics such as what u did. Creating a circle or half rounded flexi mould for the wrist on your design and taking the black outta cabling and internalising it. All in though great first attempt

I think this is cool. I would definitely make servos for each of the fingers not leave the ring and pinky out next time. I'm sure you have all that worked out now.. how did future iterations come out? There has been a lot of innovation in arduino area development in the last 7 years.

Great work, don't give up, if you make some changes it will work...I learnt many things from your work.

I want to konw about to robot which kind of part is very important for make a human robot

I'm always looking for ideas for robotic hands. Just meant as constructive comments: I would personally drop the background music. And perhaps explain things in more detail. Just my thoughts for whatever they might be worth.

Very inspiring video - it's packed with good design ideas!

What field of study should I be in if I want to learn more about motors, soldering circuit boards, engineering etc.?

I’m so proud of you. You have no idea...

Thank you

This is a great projected you must have lots of patients I have a muscle wasting condition which is starting to effect my hands more on my left hand then the right hand but it it will get progressively worse. I will hope to fined a glove like this to help.

Great effort!! Hats off👌👏👏

you deserve to be subscribed bro you don't afraid to post your mistake on RU-vid great btw I really like the design of the 4 springs at the wrist I want to help poor people to provide them cheap prosthetic or free for their living and I'm now working on this project how to make a arm which works like normal the servos are really very slow I want something like our muscles hope that we can build this

Eyo, great job! Next one will be eben better💪💪

Nice work!

Servos for the thumb in the palm, others in forearm? Great video, more informative than edited triumphs.

This design like great Although I would Def change a couple things myself, I'm building a andros now a year and I'm currently doing toes and fingers as well as orbital socket and it is a challenge, keep up the good work my man the only a few of us who are no bodies but can take on projects like this. If I may spend more time in fusion 360 with this model and play around with your caliper once you get this done printer model orientation will be the best next thing to play with, in other words don't keep positioning your model the same way on the printer and STOP using support only use raft

Fix the weak thumb by supporting the rotation with a metal tube epoxied into the thumb base and ball bearings in the palm. That way the motor shaft doesn't have to resist bending stress. Metal gear servos! Eliminate the servos' housings and design the plastic parts to directly hold the motors and gears. It'll be stronger and less bulky.

Its great man. I really appreciate your hard work for making this thing happen. Actually I'm also planning to build an affordable prosthetic for the amputees under a major research project in India. I hope to take your valuable advice some day.

If i had a 3d printer i would have definitely tried this I had this in my mind for las t 6 months

Use water soluble support material.

Great work sir

lol, that graph at 0:40 is the truth.

I appreciate your time and afford that made this video a great lesson for beginner like me. Keep up the good work!!!!!!!

Great video, It's telling me everything I need to know. Thank you

All the connections are right, everything is done the same, however the servos won't stop from running. Did you had this issue?

Is amazing

Arrived from hackaday.com/2017/07/28/fail-of-the-week-good-prosthetic-hand-design-goes-bad/ ... It's a great fail. You know what went wrong, and now are much more knowledgable than when your started. Well done! Keep doing things like this dude!

I like it.. I would have bet money those blue china servos would fail.. ..You always need to buy 8 of them to get 6 working ones..

Hi !! Thanks for this excellent video ! I can understand how difficult it must have been ! I want to build one too! If we compare to the anatomy of the forearm, all strength to flexing the fingers comes from muscles in forearm and those for the finer movements are in the hand. So if we place the motors accordingly , would be great ! Also the circuitry could be outside the forearm .. like having a separate brain for the arm!!! But all this is just theory as of now

great project.......more!!

This looks so tricky but it so cool what app did you use what things did you use

Good job

GOOD WORK

How familiar those feelings...

If that's a failure I can't wait to see what you call a success, putting the servos in the hand and getting it to work at all is extremely impressive, maybe try getting someone with a better 3d printer to make your parts?

great work! keep going with this, it is awesome. i'm working a similar project. good luck

Omg its amazing i want to be your student from Brazil! Thank you teacher!

Keep up your good work . I'm looking forward to.

good try...but i would have never "redesigned" (= destroyed) the servos to start with as you did...the inner closed loop controller need the feedback of the resistor to complete the closed loop and stop rotating the motor...even if that would not be the case the use of servos for such application is extremely tricky because they are position controlled and there is no pressure feedback to stop them from pressing when the prosthetic hand grabs and object...in those cases the servos will be stressed , unless you use the strings and additional springs to absorb part of the stress, i guess....

you could've redesigned the hand of the arm to be slightly larger and you could've used nylon in order to make the build stronger

Damn that's wicked cool

great video, i will start as well projects like this

this shit was dope!

It is great

Can you do something like this with modern technology solutions

Id like tro build prostetics one day. Because itd be cool to give someone the chance to be whole again

What kind of printer are you using? It doesn't look like it's dialled in correctly, you should be getting much better prints then that.

Damn, it sucked that it didn't turn out as expected, but hey, maybe if enough engineering research is applied, we could very well just 3d print prosthetic limbs!

Which software was used to design the model

very nice thank you for uploading this video helps alot :)