Karuna's Visit

by Kaivahn Sarkaratpour 

Last week we got the privilege of meeting Karuna and his mother to stop in and try on his prosthetic for his trumpet. We learned that his model is close to a digital model that we found and so we can use that to build from instead of the scan that we made which is not as accurate. It was my first time meeting Karuna and we got along great after I showed him all the cool stuff we do and he was excited to mess around and learn! This is the work I enjoy and being able to help these kids do what they love is rewarding in itself. 

Seeing how the thermoplastic model fits

Karuna showing us how he wears the thermoplastic model

Our scanned model printed and fitted to the trumpet

Frankie Flood showing Karuna what his newer prosthetic will look like

Karuna learned quickly and was playing around on the computer with the Rhino files moving things to where he wanted. We also learned that Karuna is a great trumpet player and has great potential. CBS 58 came in as well to film a piece on the work we have been doing and the story is set to air sometime next week.

Update and progress

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything. I'm new to this whole blogging thing and am still getting the hang of it. Aka...remembering to blog at all. In the past few weeks since i've posted, I have learned to assemble the hands we make. I've made a few so far and have got a little work done on the hockey hand for the young boy i'm working with. Building the hands have given me a better understanding of how they work and will help me in designing a better hand for Evan. To follow are just some pictures of the progress i've gotten done so far!

Here was some sketching out of an idea for a 2 axis wrist rotation design.

Here we see the 3d version of Evans hand I made to make the "glove" fit more precisely then he would fit into a normal 3d printed hand.

Here is just a few renders of a rough model of my current design.

Now that I have learned to assemble hand and have a better idea of the task at hand, I will focus the remainder of my surf hours to get this hand completed! 

Designing a Poster for the Research Symposium

Post by Kaivahn Sarkaratpour

This week we started to design the poster for the UW System Symposium for Undergraduate Research coming up on April 24th. I first had to remake our DCRL logo as a vector so that we can have a higher resolution image for printing.

Digital Craft Research Lab logo 

The next step was designing the layout for the posters we are going to present at the conference, I wanted to keep to the main colors that are used in the logo as well as in the DCRL itself. 

The Right Fit

Post by Kaivahn Sarkaratpour 

This week a number of different tasks happened with the prosthetic design. We scanned a thermoplastic form of a trumpet to better help create a adaptable piece that will help one of the kids hold on better. Then we filed and reprinted some parts for the hands we are currently building. 

Beginning of Trumpet Scan

Setting up window for scan of trumpet thermoplastic mold

Completed scan of thermoplastic trumpet mold 

Filing down fingers for smoother movement

Time to Model

Post by Kaivahn Sarkaratpour 

This week Frankie and I sat down to begin modeling a prosthetic device that would aid as a support to hold a trumpet. As it turns out, this process was not as easy we thought it would be. Using an existing model of a trumpet to base our design off of, we found that it was hard to create offsets of the parts we wanted and unioning them was just as picky. Once we built our cap that would encase the bottom of the trumpet, then we began to visualize how we would incorporate a gauntlet into the design. 

We first built up a framework that would attach to the trumpet and started to subtract parts that would cause an interference making it impossible to pull out the trumpet from the holder. It was hard to visualize how we could successfully attach this adapter to the trumpet because we would need to be holding on with a minimal amount of material, making the design weak. We tried re-positioning the device in several ways but weren't quite successful at making something work. We decided to take a break from the design and come back to it with some fresh perspective.  

     Hello all, my name is Calvin Rupnow. I am a student in the Digital Fabrication certificate program at UW-Milwaukee. I am also a SURF student under my professor Frankie Flood. The first time I met him was at the Kenilworth open house. He was talking about his work, and how he has worked with the group e-NABLE to design and build 3-D printed prosthetic hands for children who are in need of them. Since then, I have been given the opportunity to work with him and e-NABLE to bring these children functional hands to better their lives.
   
     This semester I will be focusing my research on developing a 3-D printed hand that will help a young boy we have made previous hands for play hockey once again. Before a tragic accident, hockey was one of his favorite activities. My goal is to make him a fully functioning hand to help him regain the ability to play. I am blessed with this opportunity and excited to see where it can lead.

One example of an existing design.

                                 

Another model of an existing design. Both designs have a flexible shaft shaft between where it connects to the arm and where it connects to the stick.

     

Here is a previous design that was made here by Frankie and e-NABLE.

As you see, with the fingers bent, there is no room for a hockey stick to fit in.

My initial idea is to increase the distance between the fingers and palm as well as make the fingers stiff, instead of having them grip when the wrist is bent.

Here are just some preliminary sketches and ideation I did while thinking of ideas.

After I had my initial idea, I decided to make a quick Rhino model to get a better idea of scale and looks.

My next step is going to be to get a better understanding of how the hand will function in the design and see if its a viable option. From there I will continue with virtual model and hopefully get a few test prints done.

Stay tuned...

Start Surfing

Post by Kaivahn Sarkaratpour 

Hello, my name is Kaivahn Sarkaratpour and I am a senior at UW-Milwauke majoring in Design and Visual Communication. I have been working with my professor Frankie Flood over the past year designing and building 3D printed prosthetic hands for kids. This project has become really special to me and opened my eyes to how design can be used functionally and the ways it can better the lives of others. 

This semester my research will focus on developing an adaptable piece that would make playing a trumpet easier. This design is for one of the children we have made a hand for and My initial findings were to just see how one holds and trumpet and if there were any designs that already exist. I am excited to get started and see how we can make it easier for the kids we help to do the things they love.

adaptive prosthetic holder for trumpet 

Basic positioning for holding a trumpet

Opposite view of where hand holds onto trumpet