1. Bionic Hand – an Overview

Bionic Hand – an Overview

The first general impression about robots – this is some artificial machine, similar to a human body, and acting similar to us. We even expect talking to us and understanding us. Therefore, such robots are called humanoids. Actually, there are lots of much simpler mechanical robots used in industry. They usually perform only one or some actions (e.g. transferring an item being manufactured from one worker to another), but general principles of operation are the same. 

^{Figure 1. Example of a Bionic Hand}

The situation does not look so complicated, if broken down into parts and looked from inside – recent technological achievements allow us to create a bionic hand ourselves (DIY = “do it yourself”): 

• The “body” parts of a bionic hand could be produced by the use of a 3D printer; 
• There should be some space for mechanical and electronic components inside it;  These “body” parts are usually designed by employing 3D modeling software; 
• The motions are realized by small motors (“muscles”), pulling lines/strings (“tendons”) attached to proper parts of the built hand; 
• The motors are driven from a software program, that runs on the microcontroller.

^{Figure 2. Robot humanoid}

To enhance understanding, students can use Augmented Reality (AR) to explore the internal structure of a bionic hand. Through AR models, students can visualize how motors, tendons, and sensors interact to replicate human hand movements.

• The motions could be initiated by electric pulses existing inside a human body – these pulses are detected and transferred to the microcontroller.

^{Figure 3. Main parts and components of a bionic hand}

The following topics will help us to better understand how these steps are realized, and even to try them ourselves.