Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Soft Low-Cost Additively Manufactured Bionic Arm Prosthetic - As of April 2021, the United States has over 2 million Americans living with amputation, and another 28 million are at risk of surgical amputation due to underlying causes. While there has been significant effort in improving prosthetic technology, studies evaluating the technology have indicated that many users abandon their prosthetic (45-81%) or use it more as a passive aesthetic device after some time. Advanced Life Technologies LLC, in the course of this six-month duration Phase I project, will develop a preliminary prototype of a soft self-healing soft bionic arm using a biomimetic approach and a low-cost multi-material additive manufacturing process. The goal of this project is to lower the cost of highly functional and realistic biomimetic prosthetics through a novel automated multi-tissue additive manufacturing process ultimately reducing fabrication and assembly time labor. Overall, we expect the proposed project to have a beneficial impact on the cost, aesthetics, higher functionality and dexterity, and ease of use. We believe that prosthetic abandonment would be significantly reduced if devices could simultaneously provide high functionality, ease of control, improved aesthetics/realism, and significant cost reduction.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).