The Affordable, 3D-Printed Bionics of the Future | Enzo Romero | TED

One in seven people around the world has some kind of disability.

Being born without my right hand has defined who I am

over the past 30 years.

I was fortunate to grow [up] in the sacred valley of the Incas

in Cusco, Peru,

surrounded by people who weren't surprised to see me driving my bike

or probably playing basketball.

When I was seven, I remember being stunned

after I watched "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back,"

when Luke's hand gets cut off,

the same one I didn't have.

But then, being twice as stunned

when the medical robots fitted him with a prosthesis

that could move and feel.

From then on, no greater purpose lived in my mind,

which was to have a prosthesis like Luke Skywalker.

This dream led me to study mechatronics engineering

and access the Biomechanics and Applied Robotics Laboratory

in Pontifical Catholic University of Peru,

where, with a multidisciplinary team,

we developed a myoelectric prosthesis for a long transradial amputation,

being me, the pilot user.

I was able to move each finger individually.

And also we developed a way in which we get to pass the sensation

from the fingertips into my forearm using haptic feedback system.

Since this was a research project,

we had enough funding to buy stuff from abroad.

So, for example, the motors you get to see here,

were all brought [from] Switzerland.

This is one of the main reasons why it will cost at least 40,000 dollars

to make this prosthesis.

But 40K is way too much,

considering that four out of five people with upper limb amputation

live in developing countries.

Even the 25,000 dollars that cost a robotic prosthesis imported from abroad

is way too much.

In Peru, that is equivalent to work full time

on a minimum wage for almost seven years,

just to buy the prostheses.

Never mind pay for your food or your house.

It is often that people get injured while doing manual labor activities

like farming or metal manufacturing.

Getting back to work and having access to money demands a functional hand.

It took me time to realize what a huge privilege I had

to study a career that would help fulfill my dreams.

But actually,

what was preventing me from developing a solution

that was both affordable and functional.

The very first step in order to reducing the cost

was to reduce the number of motors

because they were all imported and therefore expensive.

So we get to arrange occupational focus groups

with our amputee volunteers

in order to identify which gestures they will use the most, and of those,

how many we could perform using just a single motor.

The answer was three:

pinch,

cylindrical

and lateral.

This also helps us to reduce the number of electromyography sensors, too,

from an arrangement of eight, we passed just to one.

In this way, between makes in mechanical and myoelectric prosthesis,

the prices will be dramatically low.

But material prices matter to.

And that's why we choose to 3D print our prosthesis

using mainly plastic from recycled bottles.

Like the prosthesis I am wearing right now.

(Applause)

In order to develop our prosthesis,

the process will go like this.

First, we'll use our 3D scan

and our own parametrization software

in order to take the measures of the amputated area

and the other hand of the user.

Then we'll recreate the entire set of fingers,

the palm and the prosthesis socket in our computational model

to finally 3D print each of those parts.

So far in LAT Bionics,

we have two types of prosthesis.

Maki, which is a mechanical activation

and Pisko, with electronic activation.

Pisko cost just 10 percent of an imported robotic prosthesis

that will come from abroad.

This means that even more working-class people can access our technology.

For me, this has been a path where I was able to develop this

in my company LAT Bionics.

So, for example, take Franco,

[who] now is using his transradial Maki prostheses

in order to get back to work with his providers

on the jungle farm he has.

I am certain that we are able to be on the side

with technology that is brought from abroad to our region

being sold in a very expensive way.

We have the capacity to develop our own technology,

having the necessities of our people in mind.

So then people with disabilities and limited resources

could live a life again.

For me, when people, our users, get back to work on their places,

that look of compassion changed to astonishment.

The same astonishment which I had when I saw Luke Skywalker prosthesis.

So this began as a path for myself,

but it now belongs to my entire region.

Would you like to join us?

Thank you so much.

(Applause and cheers)