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May 28, 2015 | By Alec

While 3D printing has already done a lot for the world of prosthetics, most of those cheap plastic feature little more than a mechanical grip. Surely the real future of affordable and functional 3D printed prosthetics is bionic. And in that respect, its fantastic news that the 4^th generation MyoWare Muscle Sensors by Advancer Technologies has just been successfully funded on Kickstarter. And to give people a clue as to what you can do with their sensors, they have produced two fantastic 3D printed bionic prosthetics with the help of a certain superhero.

For those of you who’ve never heard of them, Advancer Technologies is a Raleigh, North Carolina-based company devoted to developing innovative bionic technologies and products since 2011. Over the past few years, they have developed some very promising muscle sensors that are cheap, open-source and easily incorporated into 3D printing projects such as prosthetics. Run by Brian Kaminski, they are now back with their fourth generation muscle sensor, which is more potent and easier to user than ever before: The MyoWare.

‘We released our 3rd generation sensor, Muscle Sensor v3, in 2013, to an amazing reception; we sold over 3,500 Muscle Sensor v3 sensors in the last year alone and they are now carried on popular online electronics stores like Sparkfun,’ Brian recalls. ‘But even with the success we've received, we knew we still had room to improve and had a few ideas on how to make the sensor even better. So we took these ideas, mixed in some feedback from our awesome customers and built the MyoWare.’

These MyoWare sensors are clever little tools that rely on measuring the electromyography (or EMG), or the electric potential of your muscles. Essentially this consists of the electric signals sent by your brains to your muscles, and the harder you flex, the higher your EMG gets. Outputting this as an analog system, the MyoWare can use these EMGs as signals to power motors – thus mimicking the intended movements of your missing hand by measuring the flexing in your arm, for example. ‘The harder you flex, the higher the MyoWare output voltage will go,’ Brian says. ‘All our muscle sensors have had this ability but we've redesigned our sensor from the ground up to make it more user-friendly and more affordable.’

The MyoWare can – unlike its predecessors – also be directly plugged into 3.3V/5V development boards, come with a RAW EMG Output and feature an embedded electrode connector to avoid external cables. An on and off switch, as well as some LEDS to show when its working, complete a user friendly package, while a number of ‘shields’ circuit boards with additional functions are forthcoming.

In short, the MyoWare seems to have everything a maker would need, and its therefore great news that it has already been succesfully funded on Kickstarter. With another eight days to go at the time of the writing, the guys from Advancer Technologies have gathered more than $16,000 in pledges, well above the $10,000 goal. However, if you’re thinking about getting onboard, you still can! A pledge of $35 will be enough to get your hands on one. For more about its technical specifics, go to their GitHub repository.

And if you’re at all doubting about what these sensors are good for, just take a look at the fantastic projects Advancer Technologies has used them for. Most importantly, they have teamed up with prosthetic manufacturers Limbitless Solutions and have been donating muscle sensors to them. ‘Limbitless Solutions is an amazing group whose mission is to build 3D-printed myoelectric prosthetic arms and donate them to children in need around the world,’ Brian says. Just look at the heartwarming clip above featuring Iron Man-actor Robert Downey Jr. presenting a fortunate boy missing a limb with a gorgeous 3D printed myoelectric prosthetic that looks almost as good as Iron Man’s own arm.

However, there are plenty of stuff we ordinary makers can do with these cool sensors, and Brian is more than happy to share some examples with us. ‘To celebrate the launch of the MyoWare sensor, we've created two new step-by-step tutorials: the Bionic Blaster Glove and the 3D printed bionic claws.’

Both are very cool and relatively easy to build, but the bionic Wolverine claws that extend and retract by simply flexing your arm muscles are an exceptionally cool 3D printing project. While there are many steps involved, the building project essentially consists of 3D printing and assembly the claws and glove, while installing the Arduino, servos, batteries and so on. It should be relatively easy for everyone who has worked on a 3D printing Arduino project before, though the tutorial over at Make is so detailed we don’t expect anyone to come across some real problems. But one thing is certain: the MyoWare is set for an excellent future in the 3D printing community.

 

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

 

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