Nilay Mehta Creates Low-Cost Robotic Arm That Can Be Controlled By Voice
3D printing has taken the world of makers by the storm and now high-school students are putting the technology to great use. Nilay Mehta, a student from Irvine High School in California, recently created a robotic arm that can act as a prosthetic limb. This robot arm can be controlled by voice commands and replicate the movements of a human hand. The robotic arm comes with a microphone through which user can utter commands to make the robot hand grab object, pinch, point or hold things. Nilay submitted his pet project at the Intel fair and won third position in the Biomedical and Health Sciences category after competing with 1800 students across 78 countries.
Built over 4 months, this robotic arm is a product of 3D printing technology. After winning the prize for his working prototype, Nilay is now working on usability and design. He hopes to test it on amputee soon.
Most prosthetic arms available today are priced at $35,000 which translates to Rs. 22L. The main challenge for Nilay was to make a low-cost project and he seems to have achieved it as the robotic arm can be bought for $260 (roughly Rs. 16,600).
Update: Nilay managed to cut down the cost of the arm by reducing the unnecessary motors. For instance, the wrist of the prosthetic was leveraged to assist in hinging and maneuvering instead of the use of a motor.
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