Bionic arm triumph, now even allows for playing piano

There are many bionic arms developed for individuals who have experienced limb loss worldwide, but have limited movement capabilities. İlker Uygun and Berk Reçber, students from Bilgi University's Mechatronics Engineering Department, decided to solve this limitation in their final project in the field of healthcare. They aimed to create the best bionic arm at the lowest cost, entirely with their own financial resources. They have developed a signal detection system that determines which finger movement activates which area in the brain. This way, the brain signals can control the bionic arm to perform the correct movement.

Berk Reçber stated that they noticed that the quality of life for amputees was significantly below par. He said, "Prosthetics of this kind have the capacity to perform only 1 or 2 movements. For example, they can only grasp and release a glass of water. However, the prosthesis we designed can perform 15 movements flawlessly. When this project reaches its full potential, patients using this prosthesis will be able to play the piano or write if they wish. There is a significant investment in such products in the USA and other countries, but unfortunately, we don't have that here. We noticed this need and wanted to be the representatives. Prosthetics currently available for sale abroad are priced at 10,000 British Pounds. However, we managed to keep the total cost of our prosthesis at 10,000 Turkish Liras."

İlker Uygun mentioned that the bionic arm was currently limited to 15 movements, but they could increase them. He said, "The muscles in our arms move based on signals coming from our brains. We had one microprocessor to read these signals and used special software. With EMG sensors, we mapped which signal was used in the brain for each movement made by the muscle. In other words, we observed which part of the brain was activated for a finger movement."

Istanbul Bilgi University's Department Chair of Mechatronics Engineering, Dr. Assistant Professor Yeşim Öniz, stated the following: "We used a 3D printer to print the materials and used standard and easily accessible motors. Our goal was to make it accessible to everyone. We used a type of plastic called PLA as the material. This material is commonly used in 3D printers. Additionally, it is very durable, and when these materials are damaged, we can obtain the same ones again from the 3D printer and repair them. Our students completed this project using their own resources. They achieved such high results with very low costs, which is highly significant."