Socio-technical materials for prosthetic hands

This project explores how engineering design, collaborative design, materials culture, digital fabrication and service design can be combined to revolutionise the personal selection of materials in prosthetic hands. Prosthetics is one industry in which the use of materials is inherently socio-technical: a prosthetic hand is not just a medical device or a tool, but an extension of its wearer's identity. Currently the aesthetics of prosthetic hands are polarised between 'realistic' (or uncanny) silicone gloves and cyborg-like robotic hands. Many amputees feel that neither of these alternatives fit their own body image. Our radical proposal for a materials-led approach to personalised manufacture would offer a common design in a combination of materials chosen by the wearer, ranging from new, unfamiliar materials to everyday materials that are rich in cultural associations and resonances. Given that each material choice may imply a different manufacturing process, we will explore how accessible digital fabrication could make this inclusive and empowering approach to prosthetics viable and affordable.

The project's second, complementary aim is to gain an in-depth understanding of how this particular application might catalyse a more sophisticated socio-technical engagement with materials across digital fabrication as a whole. The uptake of 3D printing can lead to a reliance on materials that can be directly printed, actually reducing our engagement with a richer material culture. Bespoke fabrication is currently usually restricted in scale, colour and materials. Offering a wider palette of materials implies a wider service, beyond individual digital fabrication facilities. This project will examine how a network of digital fabrication facilities could be combined to afford a choice of materials within the same design. We believe this case study of prosthetic hands will grant unique perspectives and inspire innovative approaches to bespoke inclusive manufacturing in other sectors. This project will illustrate how supposedly niche applications can unlock radical new practices across manufacturing as a whole.

The research will be carried out in five workstages:
'Participatory workshops', in which we will explore materials by making hands with diverse participants, including amputees, prosthetists, material scientists, designers and other makers;
'Co-designing prostheses', in which we will collaborate with a few chosen amputees to design representational prototypes of prosthetic hands in materials of their choosing;
'Designing the service', in which we will conceive of the network and service that would be needed to support this degree of choice, and prototype the user's experience of such a service;
'Looking beyond prosthetics', in which we interview further stakeholders and extract a set of generic design principles for wider digital manufacture;
'Exhibition and dissemination', in which we will stage a public exhibition to illustrate inclusive manufacturing.

Outputs will include a collection of co-designed material hands, a public exhibition of these, a prototyped user experience of the service, an edited video documenting our processes, a technical report aimed at the digital fabrication sector and articles in peer-reviewed materials science and design journals (e.g. Materials & Design; the Design Journal). This project will encourage a more creative, participatory approach to design, involving users as partners in the creation of new products. It will also influence the materials science, engineering and manufacturing communities by drawing attention to user and design-driven requirements for new materials, influencing research agendas and promoting design-led materials science in other bespoke applications.

Societal benefits
For people without a hand, many of whom do not feel comfortable with the choices of prosthesis currently available to them, this research represents an opportunity to influence future research priorities and design directions. In a field in which the alternatives are so polarised and entrenched, this research will unlock new ways of designing and manufacturing prosthetic hands.
It will also open new ways of thinking about the role of assistive technology. The need to move from a 'medical model' of disability to a 'social model' has long been recognised (for so long that the debate has become more nuanced) yet this is not reflected in the design of prosthetic hands that still allude to replacement limbs or the technology within. Moving from a model in which a prosthetist prescribes a hand toward one in which a person without a hand co-creates their own hand is a radical and appropriate revolution.
Across society, accessible digital fabrication is a tool for societal change and social empowerment. A collaborator on this research, MAKLab, is an open access digital fabrication charity with an agenda of social change, creating facilities in rural areas in the north of Scotland as well as in Dundee City's Central Library. The ability to make objects and also the activity of making objects are empowering - a tangible illustration of what might be achieved by other communities and social groups, drawing the focus from the technology itself to what might be collectively achieved with it.

Economic benefits
Given the importance of the Creative Industries in the UK economy, and the increasing importance of the UK's Digital Economy, the potential economic impact of the dissemination of digital fabrication throughout UK industry is large. Within manufacturing industry, digital fabrication is redefining the relationship between creative and industrial partners, between prototyping and production - and in doing so, between the UK and its collaborators and competitors.
Within a global prosthetics industry, the UK has pioneered research into robotic hands over many decades, resulting in the Touch Bionics 'i-Limb' and Steeper 'bebionic' hand and the significance of these products to those companies. But a social-led approach to prosthetics has begun elsewhere, such as the San Francisco start-up Bespoke Innovations using digital fabrication to offer prosthetic legs that are neither cosmetic or carbon fibre blades. Given the depth of creative industry, digital economy and maker culture (not to mention a tradition of bespoke tailoring), the UK is well-placed to lead a revolution in bespoke prosthetic hands.

Creative benefits
The research will be of interest to other creative fields in which bespoke fabrication and materials selection are combined. These include fashion design, jewellery, furniture design and architecture that each have a deep engagement with materials, yet could further embrace digital fabrication. The physical outputs of the research, hands and prosthetic prototypes, and exhibition should engage these designers.
Engineering is itself also a creative discipline, and the methods of participatory design and exploratory prototyping employed in this research could inspire more inclusive and creative practices within engineering and interdisciplinary collaborations beyond.

Knowledge benefits
The business community as well as several academic and creative fields will benefit from the knowledge that this project creates. For these audiences, the impact of the project will reside not just in the advances in practice and expert understanding, but in a raised awareness of what digital fabrication can be used for now and what more it could be used for in the future.
This knowledge will be embodied by material prototypes of hands, making it more accessible across different fields and more compelling across the visual disciplines in particular.