Bionic limbs are artificial prosthetics used for amputees whom have lost limbs due to traumatic injuries or diseases such as cancer or diabetes. Over 150 000 people have limbs amputated every year. Prosthetics have a significant effect on amputees lives as they can help the individual to complete daily activities such as walking, eating, dressing or even playing sports. Bionic limbs are a life-changing advancement of modern technology and coding which replecates normal human movements and integrates them into the prosthetic to be able to see (bionic eyes), hear (bionic ears or cochlea implants) and touch (sensory bionic arms)to accomplish basic movements and activities as they would with there original parts.
To see a real Amputees stories about there life with Bionics click here.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
The Basics:
One rectangle plank of wood for all your appliances so that they stay in place and don't get tangled
One rubber glove for the Flex Sensor to attach to
Transparent Fishermans Wire again needed to hold the finger together
One AA battery allows the finger to work without being connected to the computer.
Important Items:
A three-part, 3D printed finger that will be moved by the motor and controlled by the Flex Sensor.
One thin sheet of translucent plastic overhead paper cut to approx 1cm width, which acts like joints to hold the pieces of the finger together.
One Arduino USB cable to connect from your device to the Arduino and allow for your code to download onto the chip.
One SG90 Microservo (or any suitable monitor)that is connected from the finger (by string) to the Arduino Board, pulling the string and the finger to bend and flex
One Arduino Nano 2.X and Thinkersheild, which contains the code designed on your computer for your finger.
One Flex sensor which will be attached to your glove and allows the finger to move according to the movement of the sensor.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Grab your three pieces of the 3D printed finger, your Fishermans wire and overhead paper. Cut the paper into small pieces and hot glue them in between the 3D printed fingers (make sure the finger is approximately as long as your own).
2. Thread the Fishermans wire through the wholes of the finger, secure the wire at the top of the finger using a knot, or hot glue. Tie the other end through the wholes of the Microservo.
3. Attach the wires from the Microservo to your Arduino board. The Brown wire goes on 9G and the yellow on 9S. Glue the 3D printed finger to the edge of the wood bard and the Microservo behind, make sure the string is tight and the finger is in an extended position.
4. Attach the wires from the flex sensor onto the Arduino board, in the columns G and S.
5. Plug your USB cable into your computer and download your code onto the Arduino. The correct code and explanation is linked below. (Double check that your code works and your finger is moving before moving onto the next step).
6. Then, using a hot glue gun, you may attach your Flex Sensor to the index finger of your glove and glue the Arduino to the wood board (optional) to keep it together.
7. Attach the battery to the wood board as well as the Arduino, this allows the finger to be powered and work on its own.
The final result should look and function like this:
CODE FOR ARDUINO
Import this code into your Arduino to allow the finger to respond to your commands.
// Include Servo library
#include <(Servo.h)>
Servo myservo; //create servo object to control a servo
void setup() {
myservo.attach(9); // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object
pinMode(A0, INPUT_PULLUP);
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
// Variable to store the current angle
int flexSensor=analogRead(A0);
int angle=(flexSensor-450);
Serial.println(angle);
myservo.write(angle);
}
Watch this video for a full explanation of the Code
