LEGO Hand

Comment

Comment by Sally White on November 3, 2010 at 4:12pm

I'm posting for a group of kids I'm coaching in First Lego League. They are learning about bionics, and they decided to use the Lego hand shared by John Bergmann as part of a research project.

Here is a summary of their activities, project, ideas, findings, etc. They are a group of 6 elementary students in grades 2-5 so please consider that when reading. Their plan is quite simple, but who knows, they might be onto something? Kids are good at thinking outside the box.

They built the hand as close to the model as they could. They substituted a few pieces.

The team (The Green Spider Monkeys from Johnston/Montessori Elementary in Appleton) visited a company (Monroe Biotech in Green Bay, Wisconsin) whose employees very generously offered their time to teach them how prosthetic parts are made and adjusted for each user. They also taught them how bionic hands are controlled (sensors picking up the signals/electricity put out by the muscles in the arm) and powered (rechargeable batteries.) They demonstrated all of this, and let the kids actually try the sensors on their own arms.

The Monkeys decided to try to find a cheaper way to power a bionic hand as their project for First Lego League (and to share here.)

They decided to try making the finger and thumb tips into electromagnets using simple materials (nuts and bolts wrapped in copper wire and connected to small batteries.)

It works, but they discovered that the wires get very hot. They also need a convenient switch to turn the electromagnets on and off with another part of the body.

One of their mentors taught them how to make a circuit board with resistors and a switch to control the flow of power. They also learned to wrap the wires to reduce the heat.

They are working on using a simple rocker type light switch to make operation easier. They think a switch operated by a toe is the best idea.

They are still working on the project, but will present their current project at a First Lego League competition in Oshkosh, Wisconsin this Saturday.

Please feel free to share thoughts, comments, etc on this board, or email them to wsalb@yahoo.com. I will share your thoughts with them.

Thanks, Sally

Comment by Tonya Murray on June 24, 2010 at 10:02pm

Welcome, Ragesh! I would suggest that you start by building a lego hand. I've posted instructions on the "Files" tab of the OPP website. It would be great if you could try them out and give me feedback on how they can be made clearer. Would you be interested in adding motors to the design? (The placement of the rubber bands and possibly cable ties still need to be added to the assembly instructions, and that is another area where help is needed.)

Comment by Ragesh Kumar R on June 20, 2010 at 4:49pm

I am an undergraduate student doing engineering at NIT Calicut, Kerala; India.I had done a project in identifying the risk factor in the tibia bone by taking theoretical model of the bone also a model made by volume rendering the CT scan Images of the bone. I wanted to be a part of the lego hand project.I don't much about other than what is give in posts. I wanted to learn any contribute to the project.I am not sure how this can be done.Can some one help me in this regrad?
I have the basic knowledge in Digital Image Processing, Robotics,digital signal processing,Programming,..etc...also have some experience in working in Finite Element Method, basic knowledge in working with soft-computing techniques like Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithm.
comfortable in using softwares like Matlab, AutoCAD, Pro-Engineer, Ansys, Circuit maker, WinAvr.
knows computer languages like c,c++,Basic, Visual Basic
Has published a conference paper in image processing.

Comment by Tonya Murray on February 5, 2010 at 9:25pm

Looks like the Lego Mindstorms NXT folks are running a contest to build a robotic arm. Wish I'd seen this when it was first posted at the end of December...no way I'd be able to get our lego hand working by the deadline (Feb 28). It might be interesting to look at the contest entries when it finishes.

The NXTLOG Robotic Arm Challenge

Comment by Jon Kuniholm on January 22, 2010 at 11:54am

I actually had this concern myself, but I can think of one significant use for a Pro/E model as the source for another format. Pro/E can generate an XML model usable by Matlab/Simmechanics and the simulation format that we have been using on the DARPA RP2009 effort, that was written up by Mathworks.

While it probably makes sense for APL to have used an off-the-shelf package like Matlab for this, they did use custom software for visualization. Because the set of toolboxes for Matlab necessary to run this software outside of academia costs over $20,000 for a single license, we are hoping to develop a suite of open source software for the Myopen (and other hardware).

In addition to MSMS, there is an old open source effort for grasp simulation called Graspit!, as well as the open source game engines Ogre and Blender.

As soon as APL publishes the control protocol for the DARPA RP09 Arm, we can look at incorporating it into this package, whatever form it takes.

I'll try to put together a better overview of what we're trying to achieve and how we might go about it.

Jon

Comment by Tonya Murray on January 22, 2010 at 11:24am

Esteban,
Very cool video of the motion of the thumb! Just curious -- do you see value in having both the 3D model and the LDraw model? The purpose of the latter is primarily to create instructions for building the hand, it cannot model the motion. How will we use the 3D model once it is complete?

Tonya

Comment by Esteban Alvarez Serrano on January 17, 2010 at 1:54pm

Hello Guys I have finished the complete articulated assembly for the thumb.

For the interested ones you can download the IGES parts and Assembly for your 3D CAD software (IGES is a generic part, so you shouldn't have problems to open them).

Please see the following video for your reference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iljg8NwnYe4

Regards...

Esteban Alvarez

http://www.adrive.com/public/de565c56ff61eb6758ce1ef2d3e724676a1fea...
http://www.adrive.com/public/c4eaf631b1c2b291c69ced271d97b8f52f1b96...
http://www.adrive.com/public/c27fe9ef8784ccefbd095b4b87bfae6f737f80...
http://www.adrive.com/public/5de07b07499ba5888c550a377a58a05e043203...
http://www.adrive.com/public/2a3ddf08f5d0f17eb59d89d884be35b51dacb7...
http://www.adrive.com/public/0a7964178303d5c157072dd47ee36b37fdefa7...
http://www.adrive.com/public/19034d779ccec673952ad8c9ea24344b5ccaa1...
http://www.adrive.com/public/76b7408a2ad89c099597c93146c43c4a3d0730...
http://www.adrive.com/public/76b7408a2ad89c099597c93146c43c4a3d0730...
http://www.adrive.com/public/380525490753b8177349cfd664707ad4addbdf...
http://www.adrive.com/public/c1ab3a69e44c58ad0344d7dd2087503d606c64...
http://www.adrive.com/public/76278b30d1e030f74285ac824505745a82d55b...
http://www.adrive.com/public/281bbeace46853ffc64b27259d42b0b95964eb...
http://www.adrive.com/public/2ea1db86315c976cfb460cb85ba20070abc953...
http://www.adrive.com/public/e4d82d989067a543a772982f43ee6980d603d9...
http://www.adrive.com/public/2e0b485e29c7d1dda8ebb2c7562797dd271e22...
http://www.adrive.com/public/88d6626d55b25015dd7295a6c6c92fa7f20fc9...

Comment by Tonya Murray on January 15, 2010 at 6:59pm

The forum members at www.brinklink.com identified the mystery part -- 32177. I have the assembly of the thumb base, tip, and middle, and of the finger base modelled using LDraw/MLCAD, but there are a lot more steps to go. If anybody wants to help, just send me a message and we can split up the work.

Comment by Tonya Murray on January 11, 2010 at 6:16pm

Anybody know the part number or name of the lego part used for the "tarsals"? It's the only one I haven't been able to identify.

I've downloaded LDraw and begun work on creating lego-style building instructions for the hand based on John B's photos. It's a great freeware CAD program specifically for legos -- so easy even a software engineer can figure it out! ;) I'll post updates as I get portions finished...

Comment by Tonya Murray on January 11, 2010 at 6:08pm

Esteban,
Thanks for joining the lego hand ning group! I set it up because there wasn't an obvious way for new volunteers such as myself to meet the people who are already working on the hand and figure out how to get involved. This group will also help us get more peer to peer interaction going so that we're able to build upon each other's work. A few people have already responded to the Introduce Yourself thread: Introduce Yourself.

So far we've got:
John Bergmann -- working on improving the thumb
Tonya Murray -- interested in improving building instructions and then powering the hand with NXT
Ben Long -- interested in myoelectric control and EMG signal processing
Jon Kuniholm -- working on the MyOpen project to build a board for EMG signal processing

It would be great to hear what you've done so far with the 3D modelling, and what you hope to do next -- perhaps you could start a thread in the discussion area? The Files tab is a good place to share your model as it progresses.

John Bergmann posted his email address at the end of the introduce yourself thread. He also mentioned that he's in the process of transitioning out of the Navy, so it may take awhile for him to respond.

While Jon's given me admin priviledges for the ning site, it doesn't appear that the project has enough active members to need much Project Administration at this point.

Looking forward to working with you!

Regards,
Tonya Murray

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