3D printing in animatronics | Easton LaChappelle | TEDxMileHigh

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

How is 3D printing changing the future of prosthetic and animatronic limbs? Tinkering with this new technology 17-year old inventor Easton LaChappelle is creating robotic limbs with strength and dexterity beyond human, and will create new models for custom prosthetics in the not-so-distant future.

Thank you.

When I was younger, I always
took apart everything I got.

Just a few years ago, I finally learned
how to put everything back together,

and everything took off from there.

When I was 14, I came up with this idea,

it was to create a robotic hand,
controlled by a wireless control glove.

Now, I was 14, this was
a pretty far-fetched idea for me.

It was one of the most practical Ideas
I've had so far,

but I had no idea
how to make this into reality.

I turned to the Internet,
and I instantly found a lot of sites

that really promoted learning
and made learning fun and easy.

These site include SparkFun,
Instructables, Hackaday

just to name a few.

From there, I started actually building.

As you can see,
I started using electrical tubing,

a lot of electric tape,
and LEGOs as supports.

That's just what I had of laying around,
and I want to make use of it.

I like to work fast,
and this is the [result] of it.

So throughout learning,
it was a challenge.

I live in a small town
in Colorado so I'm very limited.

I don't have big universities
to go into and ask questions.

I had the Internet and my bedroom
to make everything out.

For example, for the flex sensors
on the control glove.

I first learned how to wire
those up to a micro controller.

Then write code for them and get
all the raw signal values from those.

Convert that into motor signals, and then
actually move something with that.

Then add it at wireless radios
and make everything work in unison.

If you times that by five,

you get individual finger control
of a whole hand.

Now, I didn't stop there.

I wanted to make something bigger,
better, and more functional.

I started learning modeling software,

and I wanted to get this made physically.

I was going to go at CNC milling
or something like that,

and just the cost was outrageous.

So there was this new, evolving technology

that started coming into play
which was 3D printing.

I sent this to a few companies,

and I was getting quotes upwards
of 500 dollars just to print the hand.

This was the point where I almost quit,

I didn't have 500 dollars to put
into something that could just fail.

So I really looked around and tried to use
my resources as much as possible.

I had a friend that lived in New York,
and he worked at a 3D printing company,

and he had a printer of his own,
and he threw it on one night,

and I had to pay for shipping.

So this is really the spark of this.

You know, contributing
and making everything possible.

I wanted to increase functionality,
and with that you need stronger motors,

and better electronics, and everything.

I was 16 at the time. I didn't have
a whole lot of money to put into this.

I pretty much had the money
from working over the summer,

and so I had to find compromises

between different technologies,
different motors,

and incorporate it all into one system.

So I needed an extremely high torque motor
with a really precise feedback system,

and that alone already sounds expensive.

What I ended up doing was
I used a DC motor with a gearbox,

a really beefy gearbox to really get
the maximum torque out of a simple motor,

and I put a potentiometer
at the end of the shaft.

A potentiometer is what's
found in light dimmers.

So again, keeping the cost extremely low
and increasing functionality.

So in the end, I built
this robotic arm up to the shoulder,

which was extremely strong.

It could toss balls to you,
it could shake your hand,

it could pretty much do anything
a human could

if you programmed it correctly.

From there, I entered this
into the Science Fair in Colorado,

and at the state science fair,
I kind of had an aha-moment.

This seven-year-old girl came up to me,

and she had a prosthetic limb
from the elbow to the fingertip;

one motion and one sensor.

I started talking
to her parents more about it,

and just that alone was 80,000 dollars

which is a lot of money for anyone.

And I could see the distress,
talking to her parents,

because that is a lot of money,
and the thing was that she was 7,

so she'd probably need about
two or three of those in her lifetime.

And that was the aha-moment for me.

I could take what I was are you doing,
transfer that directly into prosthetics,

add a control system,

and it could have the potential

to save, to make life
that much more enjoyable

for amputees and other
already prosthetic users.

There are other prosthetics in the market.

The main control system for the newer
advanced ones are all neural implants,

which is an open spinal surgery,
which is extremely dangerous.

It's an open spinal surgery,
where they implant sensors

enter your spinal cord
that pick up your neurons.

That's dangerous
and also costs a lot of money;

I don't have money to do that
so I wanted to find a compromise.

I started looking around.
I wanted to keep everything external.

I wanted to get rid of all the surgeries,
and just have something simple

that you could put on every day,
take off whenever you need to;

concealed within something that's easy.

This is the EEG headset.

This reads about 10 different
channels of your brain,

and with this, you can do a lot.

This is all wireless,
it actually uses Bluetooth.

So this is the newer arm
that this actually controls,

and although it's only sending
data a few inches,

that adds to the prosthetic,

that eliminates the wires
going from your head to the arm,

and for prosthetic users, that's
a big psychological aspect to it all.

Now, the cost--

The cost for prosthetics is outrageous.

The newer ones, I don't even want
to say the price of that.

I was able to make
this whole physical arm

that has the same
functionality as a human arm,

the same degrees of freedom,

and almost the same strength,
which is extreme,

and I was able to make
this whole physical model

with this whole neural control system
for right about 400 dollars.

A lot of--

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)

And I could guess

that a lot of the phones in your pockets
right now will cost more than that.

(Laughter)

I was able to make this so cheap
and affordable because of 3D printing.

Actually, I have
two 3-D printers in my room

where I'm able to make

each individual part,
each individual fingertip,

and that's what really sets
this apart from anybody else,

is that I can make custom gearboxes.

I can really increase the functionality
within a few days of just prototyping,

and finding new ways,
and new technologies to incorporate this.

Now, with prosthetics,
there's an appearance issue.

Some of you might want

this really cool-looking,
futuristic robotic arm as a limb,

and others want something
that looks, and feels,

and looks just like a human arm
skin-wise and everything.

And that's what 3D printing
has allowed me to do,

create really organic-looking objects,
and fingers,

and the whole shape,
the whole basic shape of it all.

So that makes it easy
to put silicone skin around it,

and that also decreases cost,
because it requires less silicone,

and also makes it look more human-like.

There were some innovations
that I used within this.

3D printing usually comes out
within layers, it looks kind of choppy,

and what I actually did

was I heated acetone up to 110º C
where it starts to vaporize.

I collected that vapor, and I had it
condense onto the 3D printed objects.

That gives it
a really clean, glossy finish.

And it sounds very dangerous. I actually
did this in my bedroom with mason jars.

(Laughter)

Something about my bedroom--

It's already starting
to change people's lives.

This is really becoming practical
in the real world applications.

Prosthetics is
the main application for this,

and there's a lot that this can change.

I'm already working on newer hands,

which currently I have
all the motors within a forearm.

I have a new design

where all the motors were concealed
within the palm of the hand,

still the same size,

and I get over twice
the strength of what I have now,

already that I can almost
surpass human strength.

Already I'm looking at over 50 pounds
of torque per finger, which is extreme.

Well, almost dangerous extreme.

(Laughter)

Actually, currently, I'm living
in Houston working at NASA,

I'm part of the Robonaut project.

(Laughter)

(Applause)

Transferring a lot of this technology
to what they're doing,

and I'm not stopping there,
I want to help people.

This has turned into something
that started from boredom

into something
that could change people's lives.

Already I have plans
to help the deaf hear,

and I have a little side project,

there's this boy at my school
that was in an accident,

and he was paralyzed from the waist down,

and there's a 2% chance
that he'll walk again.

My goal is to create
an exoskeleton pair of legs for him

so he can actually walk for graduation.

My goal is to help people--

(Applause)

yes, it's really turning into something
that I never expected.

I believe this is the future,
and this is just the start of it,

and what's got me here is curiosity.

Curiosity is in every part of us,
and it's what makes the world go round,

and that's why we're here today.

So I challenge you
to challenge the system,

to look beyond all the boundaries,
and to be curious.

Thank you.

(Applause)