Redesigning My Biomimetic Mechatronic Hand - 3D Printed Interphalangeal Joint

The first video in a series I'm making on my new, redesigned biomimetic bionic hand. In this video I introduce a new interphalangeal joint - a simple hinge although there are some very specific requirements. The design will be 3D printed and designed in Fusion 360.
Get access to the CAD files still in development on my Patreon page: / nilheimmechatronics
CContact: [e-mail]
Discord Server: / discord

[@joannot6706]

The removal of torsion spring is probably one of the best upgrades because of the loss of actuator power with the previous design

[@ervinm.5065]

This guy: *design a mechatronic hand and prints it all by himself* Me: *tries to anchor a line on a plane in SolidWorks and fails*

[@MrGatlin98]

Me: Burns water while making cereal

[@userou-ig1ze]

@@MrGatlin98 me: what is solidworks? what is cereal?! Why am I alive?!?

[@MarioTheLiopleurodon]

Me: Please, just fillet the corners. I beg you Solidworks: *NO*

[@freddibiri3149]

Failing is good, not failing is for losers.

[@maxk4324]

Me: I'm gonna finally get that tube routing done for the pneumatic system's CAD Solidworks: I'm gonna end this mans whole career.

[@William_ar98]

Finally something positive in 2020, cant wait to see more!

[@huarwe1196]

Me too.. although i think a full size working terminator might cause some problems with my neibours.

[@ontheotherhand32]

Positive!? Have you ever heard of Skynet?!?

[@huarwe1196]

@@ontheotherhand32 the future has to start somewhere

[@plazmakj6933]

This comment didnt age well

[@jacobfalk4827]

This made me appreciate my hands more. We are a long ways out from making new ones.

[@ryandavis4448]

My inner child just sobbed tears of pure joy! I dreamed of that as a kid, making one out of Popsicle sticks and rubber bands... Beautiful sir!!

[@nunyabisnass1141]

For the pulleys you can use chain links. They are made with a large amount of variety and add a great deal of durability. They can also be taken apart to be stacked, and can apply greater force, enough to use a hydraulic pump if you wanted.

[@brianthered]

This world needs more people who care like you do.

[@Sniperman-sk2ie]

Super cool that this is a technology that is being developed today and that will be useful for many people in the near future!

[@megaraph5551]

I swear this guy can design a whole human being by the end of this year.

[@p.9608]

na yah, should only take 9 month or so from the sretch

[@TS-jm7jm]

okay i know thats a joke but very seriously this is nowhere even in the ball park about the complexity of the body.

[@Rok_Satanas]

WOW, I designed a hand a few years ago, and I am surprised how many similar ideas we had. Your 3d design skills are way better than mine though :D

[@DMonZ1988]

wow, i can't wait! you're so incredibly skilled, i'm certain this is going to be amazing.

[@Ptitgluant]

i miss my bionicles watching your videos ... amazing job as always

[@mercerwing1458]

Really excited for this! I have been having a tough time figuring out the thumb joint in the hand I am building for my project and your videos helped a lot with ideas.

[@leifefrancisco7316]

What you’re doing here is amazing. The fact that you want to make it open source is amazing.

[@EmeraldVII7]

I'm in robotics myself and honestly this is a very impressive project, I keep looking out for more! Can't wait to see more

[@joshuadsuper101]

Very excited for this project. I'm curious what reference material you're using.

[@WillCogley]

Are you referring to the book I show in the video? That's: Hand and Wrist Anatomy and Biomechanics: A Comprehensive Guide.

[@lucasc5622]

Prosthetics for dummies haha

[@joshuadsuper101]

@@WillCogley Thank you! I was interesting to know what book that was. But i was also just curious if there were other sources you were using and what you were using them for exactly. I think it's interesting to see where people get their inspiration from

[@mariusms8494]

this is f***** amazing ⚙🛠🔥

[@jonjon3829]

@@WillCogley seems to me you're out of ideas. Why not recreate your own hand from a ct/mri and just follow the placement of the tendons as close as possible and then just replace the muscle 3d models with a eletromechanical system. Gotta use what you have mate. For the joints why not use the design they use on hip replacements.

[@Airbag888]

People like him actually should live around 500yrs to be able to contribute to the betterment of humanity

[@christopherosborn7081]

Great project and I like that you're using off the shelf materials and electronics.

[@kenpinoy1915]

Im waiting for your update until today. You are the only one whose thingking about real human hand movements. Nice.

[@rcgliders]

The design is absolutely amazing. The pulley joint is an amazing way to control the joint, and one of the most impressive things I saw was seeing something I did for my university project aswell (in a robot arm though not a hand). Where you removed the potentiometer from the servo and and turned it into a 360 degree servo and used potentiometer for external position feedback. One thing I would recommend for long duration use is to use non back drive motors rather than servos for controlling the movement as servos would use up alot of power if you want to hold a position where as the non back drive motor can hold it mechanically.

[@PisaniProductions]

That 3D render is friggin sexy. Every prosthetic hand I’ve seen on the internet is slow, and mobility tends to be lacking except for this one. Super excited to see how this turns out!!

[@mattiasfagerlund]

Very exciting, looking forward to this!

[@jameshogge]

I actually think the wire idea to hold 3D printed parts together is pretty neat but it got me thinking: You can buy small brass rivets (sub 1mm dia). Those would be perfect for an application such as this if you could fix them in place without damaging your print. On top of this, you could heat up your rivet/wire after to melt the surrounding plastic so the parts adhere to each other

[@lawrencecabrera3960]

I cant wait to see your animactronics all together

[@Deemooo]

Wow actual product design process on youtube? Amazing I'll definitely want to see more of this

[@matthewmeans871]

After working on my own prosthetic, and scouring the internet of other potential modeling methods. I think yours is probably the best one I've seen to date. The only problem is how much space the motors occupy (and as I'd imagine the problem with stall torques with carrying an object for an extended time).

[@gweejiahan9336]

OMG I was thinking of this idea for my university project as well same with the biomimicry and pulleys. glad to see someone made and making it happen

[@unboxing_tomorrow]

WHOA! That level of detail is insane! :D

[@Do_NoHarm]

Really like the pulley joint mechanism, torsion springs are awful to work with.

[@antonwinter630]

fantastic that you have rebooted this project. the pulley system is very interesting, if you use block and tackle mechanisms, you should be able to get some great torque out of it

[@nolanhanna]

Those vowel qualities are very interesting

[@Nono-hk3is]

I continue to be impressed and amazed at the amount of thought and ingenuity you put into your designs.

[@athosdomotics7104]

Glad to see you're back ! This project is by far the most advanced 3D printed Bionic Arm in KZbin and very well explained ! Keep going Will, that's a great work

[@CAPTINKING]

so smart cant wait till open source this could really help people that I meet.

[@theonlyari]

Having some slop in the joins, like your segmented piece, can be useful to allow the hand to grasp something tightly, without necessarily damaging itself-- assuming the things that hold the joints together dont break.

[@jimshepherd6500]

Hi - fellow engineer here (about to go into my 4th year integrated Master's Degree in Engineering Science at Oxford). I've been following this for a while and I'm really glad to see you pick it up again! I'll probably donate to the Patreon if that's what it's for. What I think you're trying to do here is pretty much what I tried to do for my A Level Product Design Project (except that I made mine using 40+ year old metal machining tools so that the final hand could be made out of mild steel for strength and durability - also, my school didn't have 3D printers when I started manufacture...). It's also one of the proposals I made for my 3rd year group design prosthetics project (though sadly not the one my group decided to pursue). I never really considered the project finished and so never really put it to bed, and I always intended to return to it after I finished my degree. Tl;dr:- I'd love to be involved in this! I've been thinking about this for - probably over a decade - and I really approve of the direction that you seem to be aiming your design improvements towards. The torsional springs vs pulleys problem is definitely something that I noticed when I watched your earlier videos some time ago. I also love and am very much on board with your interpretation of "bio-mimetic" here, with the focus on function over execution - I doubt that it would be particularly useful to mimic the 'overlapping' phalangeal tendons that we have in our biological hands, since that would be a nightmare to control! Let me know if you're interested - I have lots of thoughts and potential improvements that I've developed over literal years (for example that it might be more useful to have the potentiometers on the forearm rather than built into the joints, for about 5 different reasons). I'm a fan of these kinds of things being open source, and since you mentioned your intention for this to be that, I'd love to start a conversation, or at least, provide more detailed feedback. I look forward to hearing from you. But even if I don't (because maybe I'm too pompous haha) then no hard feelings, I wish you the best of luck with this project!

[@reddblurr]

Keep up the good work. We need everyone we can get.

[@honieethesolarpunk4895]

I have no idea what he is really saying but i love when men talk about things they are passionate about💖💖💖

[@LucasLGMarques]

Dude! Thank you for coming back to this project! I'm really exited to see how it's gonna turn out! If the dollar wasn't so expensive at the moment I would definitely support you on patron!

[@TheSdimych]

Dear Will, you’ve started a very important project. A lot of disabled persons could use your ideas to have their artificial hands with reasonable price and proper quality as you said. Please, keep on going and good luck from me and my daughter...

[@jahhaahaha12]

In my freshmen year of highschool, I drew and designed exo suits and wanted to use 3d printing and I was never able to get a 3d printer but if I did I would be probably been as far as this guy or even more further, still cool to see someone with the same goals and be able to accomplish it

[@jahhaahaha12]

I'll start when I can

[@larionknight7545]

Man I just read your title. I love biomimicry. It was my design approach for my thesis, tho I applied it to architecture. Keep up the good work man. I just finished watching Violet Evergarden and here prosthetic arms were amazing, so I was wondering if prosthetic arms really offered that amount of dexterity. Keep up the good work man, you will help a lot of people with this

[@farifurido]

man the design of your bionic hand is so good and clean i need to learn more 😍😤

[@amadine770]

The fact that you are or will be making it open source does make it exciting for the field of prosthetics-another thing do not compare your effort with Shadow Hand - i trust -God willing -yours will come out much better.

[@LongPigg]

The joint between the DP and IP pretty much tracks the movement of the IP to PP joint so a Pot isn't really needed to capture that data. I found that placing a Pot above the IP which maps the IP to PP joint and a Pot above the PP which maps the knuckle, then you only need a third Pot above the Knuckle to capture the fingers abduction. Doing it this way also leaves the tips of your fingers free which is helpful. I haven't finished my design because I only needed to prove the concept for now but I can share what I have if it would help. I also have a rigid joint design for the finger which makes it easier to put on (suit of armour/iron man style).

[@Wanderer_of_Sol]

FDM printers are getting super cheap, very accessible right, and are capable of making really high quality prints. Even a very entry level printer like the Ender3 ($210 usd) is capable of making prints at relatively high tolerances that are comparable to some resin printers. The trick is to set up your printer correctly and spend some time dialing in your settings to ensure the highest possible quality prints. Which isn't actually that hard, it just takes some trial and error, some test prints and bench marking, and maybe some cheap or free (printable) upgrades to your machine. Printers like the Ender3 are also capable of printing in ABS, which is way stronger. The only caveat is that they need a temperature controlled environment. AKA a box or tent to keep the ambient temperature around the print constant, otherwise you get problems in layer adhesion. Most people either buy cheap ones on amazon for $15, or they make one out of plastic bins. I've seen some made out of plastic film and PVC pipes, and plywood boxes. All seem to work fine, just so long as the printer stays warm and there's no airflow. All said and done, it's not that difficult and there's a wealth of tutorials and information for anyone wanting to print stronger materials. Speaking of material science, I'd personally recommend the channel CNC Kitchen for lots of research in to material strength, and he posts detailed papers on his patreon. Very helpful information. Lastly, I can say that people are using entry level printers to get amazing prints after they've been tuned and calibrated properly. I've seen people make tiny Dungeons and Dragons miniatures that have nearly the same level of detail as resin printers. I've seen people make mechanical parts with remarkably tight tolerances and there are even benchmark prints that are one piece prints with smoothly operating mechanical parts. Tuning your printer, correcting the settings in your slicer, and using the proper filament would raise the quality of your prints, and quality of your project as a whole, dramatically.

[@Laffs00]

Just joined up on your patreon! Love the 3d printing, open sourced hardware, etc. Anything biomechanical is of great interest to me. Dont force yourself to make videos too often, as you might get sick of it eventually and go awhile before you feel up to make another.

[@gsisinna]

Hi! I'm a bionics Engineering MSc student and I think your project is super cool! Thanks for sharing :)

[@michaelhoo6827]

Congrats! Glad to see you continuing polish this artwork, I am a Ph.D. student majoring in bionic prostheses, I wonder would you plan to design a wrist? On the one hand, having a wirst is very practical is daily usage. while on the other hand, it may quite difficult in design because it may need much power than fingers. you can see not many robotic hands have a wrist. I focus on bio-signal control of robot hand, welcome to my channel~ Best Regards

[@fuzzydragoncosplay955]

Will be interesting to see what you come up with, I’ve found that it’s always a good idea, especially with resin printing, to run a drill bit through your holes to insure they are the right size. I printed some fingers in resin last year and because I didn’t drill those holes before curing, I had to go back and drill them after. Was quite the surprise when I went to put in the linkages between finger segments.

[@dermonch7959]

Glad to see you back on this, it is impressive work!

[@ethangilbertmedia]

your videos really have inspired me, ive started a small 3D printing business to get money together to fund my robotic development, im 15 and trying to get a head start on this, when this is finished im gonna have a go at making one

[@cheesepuddin1266]

simply amazing that you are taking the time to redesign

[@bgrant1512]

I like your design parameters. I follow several maker channels and this is where most of them get lost. They start out doing projects their followers can replicate but as the channel becomes popular they get sponsors and better equipment. As soon as that happens they start incorporating things like cnc parts in every project that follows.

[@julianthayer2722]

A problem I have seen with many engineering students at my university is trying to 3D print screw holes into projects(especially aligned horizontally). While its possible to get acceptable results, it overwhelmingly leads to failed FDM prints. Unless resin printing is used; a better approach is to include pilot holes or witness marks and drill out the holes to the correct size after printing

[@ericlotze7724]

Your work is amazing, you document it well, and are planning on open sourcing it. A rare treat i am HAPPY to see. Keep up the good work!

[@patpencerga]

Looking forward for your next update and the final finish product. Keep it up!

[@gladbandanna]

This is amazing and good luck to you! Everyone should hit up your Patreon! My brother lost his hand and I love 3d printing, so seeing this is awesome!

[@Skillseboy1]

Excited. Good luck

[@RoadRunnerMeep]

Brilliant work as someone interested in Mechatronics this was a nice little gem of a video to find

[@TurboSqu1d]

I was just recommended this video by youtube and I'm glad it was. It was a good watch and I'm sure the videos to follow will be as well. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being one of your most popular videos if the algorithm gets a hold of it.

[@seanheadrick]

this is amazing, and to see your process so well documented. Thank You!

[@exowarlock9031]

I loved the video and am excited to see how the project goes. I am working on my own biomimetic hand/arm and your hand was one of my original reference materials. I made a finger with springs but eventually decided to copy the body more closely and am now working with air muscles in pairs.

[@5sweatingpalm]

DAmn your work will be the foundation of many mechanical engineered hands and even robotic hands if you shared. in other words your are one of the founding father to set the heat bed and pioneered to designing a mechanical types and works that are shared and i am pretty sure the University has no say because it will make you famous since it becomes shared. I will share this site with others you will lead us. Btw Keep that email active. Some way down the line in the future someone will be looking for ya.

[@owenpalmer8242]

Looks great dude! Can't wait to see what you can do with it!

[@flomakinas]

I was thinking about collecting data for the user's profile using the hand for better movement. You put a glove with sensor in the other hand, in case its an amputee that has the other hand. But if they don't have both maybe programing with a a standard profile that was programmed by a volunteer that would teach the algorithm by machine learning.

[@Mercurium]

Amazing work, cant wait to see how it performs 👍

[@ninja77moose]

Very well articulated and demonstrated - look forward to seeing more from you!

[@Antonia.Bradley]

Very well done Will, love your work. As a retired Physicist (and Biologist) with good skills in electronics I've also thought to design and build something like this with my 3d printer. I shall follow your work with great interest.

[@amrfwws4461]

I really respect you bro, you literally creating something big here! This is the main reason I buy 3d printer, to create something like this bc it so cool and will be very useful.

[@remlya]

Interphalangeal. Now that is a word you need to take seriously. No flippant or unnecessary use. If it comes up in a sentence, you know the discussion is chock full of meaning.

[@weirdlines4465]

Thank you for deciding to make it open source!

[@danthiel8623]

Oh dude this is so awesome

[@lau4893]

Your design is awesome and so are you for sharing it!

[@franksiam2975]

super project. PLEASE link the potentiometer.

[@MrLuc420]

This is very cool! And kudos for planning on making this open source!

[@emilsalling7273]

I am also interested in that potentiometer! Where can I find these? Very nice to see you back on this project!!

[@ddegn]

Those sorts of potentiometers are pretty common but they're generally not listed as a "potentiometer." They're a "position sensor." Search Digi-Key for part number "490-2400-ND." These sensors and other potentiometers wear out with a lot of use. I'm always looking for ways of keeping potentiometers out of my robotic projects.

[@GW-ek8xp]

What's the failure rate like? Are there any better alternatives? e,g. strain sensors?

[@BooBar2521]

@@ddegn thanks alot for this detailed description, where I Find this product

[@sevdev9844]

@@ddegn Wow, thanks. Incredibly usefull comment. I don't want to use bulky servos but put in sensors in all kinds of joints, and in some cases they need to be very small, so knowing this already helps a lot.

[@RahulGupta-cn2hh]

You are very skilled. Keep going.

[@philliptoone]

Wow. Impressive work. Subscribed and looking forward to seeing your progress on this project.

[@philliptoone]

What CAD system are you using? I switched from SolidWork to OnShape in 2017.

[@xdeadwrongxdeadwrong7181]

Wow this is the real deal. I had to subscribe to see more of your work. Definitely considering patreon , seems like you would follow through with this and still maintain high quality precision work ethic. Very nice video glad it showed up on my feed randomly 😁

[@theclueless11212]

Yes, excited to follow this project!

[@blinded6502]

Glad to see you are continuing to improve

[@iraqi3612]

Amazing job my friend well done

[@BooBar2521]

Thank You very much for Redesign this amazing Projekt. I am very interested and will follow this

[@CrimsonRegalia]

This is pretty similar to a project I'm working on. I find it fascinating that he also had to address balancing biomimetic geometry versus practicality.

[@mellowecho]

yooo thats pretty sick looking

[@pladselsker8340]

looking at those desing parameters, it sounds stupendously hard to pull off. That's some crazy restrictions you put on the project! Looking forward to your work, you always find a way to amaze me :p

[@davekrassi]

The pully system is interesting, but i was thinking about different ways to build biomimetic hand and arm prosthetics and came up with the idea to use pneumatics instead of electric motors since I think that they could be stronger. The downside of a system with high pressure air, pistons and valves is of course, that they need way more space, have wires AND tubes going all over the place and you're limited by your air tank and the battery. But I'd love to hear your opinion on this idea..

[@ZetkoCZ60]

Looks so fucking cool, cant wait for next videos

[@pmc2085]

This is so cool! I've always thought that a pulley system for a hand would be the best way of doing it!!

[@champifun2]

Metal nuts and bolts must add considerable weight to the hand. Wire seems much lighter. Excellent project!

[@swannschilling474]

Looking forward to see the progress!! This is great!!

[@turtle79070]

thats some damn sexy paneling.

[@oraziovescovi1922]

how did I not discover this channel before! instant subscription

[@techsavvyhero]

Truly fascinating, Will! Keep it coming :D

[@NahuuDumbsky]

honey, the neighbor is creating an amazingly spooky robotic hand again

[@08Jacky15]

Hi, I'm very interested in seeing what you come up with. Liked your original design, because it looked more organic than most hands out there. Glad to see you learned your lesson on guiding the wires like it's done in bicycles, if you had done that right in the original design i guess you would have had more sucess at the hand wrist. Since you asked for suggestions I would recommend considering you to bring the potentiometer back to the servo. Also integrating the wiring inside of the "bones", but i know that's really tricky. Third thing would be using N20 geardmotors with encoders, could save some space instead of servos. Good luck.

[@sparttanis]

all my graduation work is based on your videos, thanks for the inspiration and all the help I'm an electronics guy

[@EpicVoiceShitposting]

2:17 looks like Stone Ocean

[@AtomkeySinclair]

I love my DLP resin printer for things like this. Newer 'tough' resins that are out now work really well. As small as these parts are, an Anycubic Photon for about $250 USD will work out better than you can imagine. Crisp clean exacting parts. And I use blender for design and .stl output. Great content... I look forward to see your design take shape. Subbed.

[@ddegn]

I also think a resin printer would be a good match for this sort of project.