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Building A Robotic Arm to Help Prevent COVID-19

  • Writer: Jack
    Jack
  • Mar 29, 2020
  • 4 min read
To Madelein Weaver – my best friend. Thank you so much for helping me sketch out the idea.

 Yesterday, I sat down on the front porch of my house and felt so sad how quiet my neighborhood was. I started thinking about how I can help to improve our situation at the moment – COVID-19 pandemic – without forcing people to practice extreme social-distancing. 


 During last semester taking Circuit Analysis I class at MassBay Community College, my partner and I worked together designing a prosthetic arm that mimics movement of a human arm using what we learned in class. My idea now is to manipulate this prosthesis to apply to people so that we can socialize with others during this time. A muscle sensor will still be attached to a person’s bicep area. When he/she flexes his/her bicep muscle, it will send a signal to the microcontroller – an Arduino – to control the motors to bend the fingers as what we did with the 3D printed prosthetic arm project.  


 According to the CDC, “The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person. 1. Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet). 2. Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.” Both reasons, in my opinion, prevent us from socializing with each other as normal. To protect ourselves, we all should follow steps and instructions from the CDC. However, my idea with the prosthetic arm could help you to normally greet and meet other people to some extent. Imagining yourself wearing a robot arm and greeting each other from a further distance without worrying about getting exposed to the virus makes our current situation less frustrating. 


(Image from https://www.havaslynx.com/blog/open-bionics-the-prosthetic-pioneers-making-science-fiction-a-reality/)
Future of human and robots

 Redesigning my prosthetic arm and bringing it to the next level in which it could be applied to a person’s hand with ease can help people to shake hands and even hug. Of course, we are still practicing social-distancing, but this could help to lessen the level of extreme. It allows us to do what I would call “safe socializing” at this moment in time. 


 An example is that a person can wear this robotic arm into their forearm section. As a result, instead of shaking hands with others or touching surfaces using your hand, we can certainly use the robotic arm to do so. In addition, it could also be used to open doors, carry bags, etc. At the moment, I am still thinking about the design since the aim is that it can be used to carry not only light objects but heavy ones as well. Imagining opening a door with it is still a challenge since opening a door requires a lot of force and friction between your hands and the door handle. Therefore, designing the arm so that it can firmly stays into your arm would be the next step I take.


 You might be thinking as you’re reading this that we can make some kind of glove instead. However, studies have shown that the virus does poorly on either cardboard (the virus can stay alive for 24hr) or copper (only 4hr) surfaces. I wanted to utilize this result to apply to my idea. We probably can make gloves from cardboard. But how can we wash and reuse it? So what about copper? Probably a better idea here. Some might think of it as a metal, solid etc. which makes it hard to move and not easy to have an organic shape to it. However, there exists copper filament in the market that is claimed to be antibacterial and infections-avoidable. In the future, I will spend more time researching to see how effective it is. Certainly, this material will be a game changer to our idea. 


Copper filament that can be used to 3D print. (Image and information taken from https://copper3d.com/)

 Cleaning the arm would be similar to cleaning our hands. The material it is printed with will be copper filament. Therefore, in my opinion, it appears to have no threat of washing with soap since copper does not rust but corrodes. More importantly, this process would take several years until copper starts to change its color. 


 In addition, using gloves does not hurt but using a robot arm can somehow add distance between you and other people when socializing. Gloves usually are not efficient and wasteful. In contrast, the robot arm will definitely be reusable for a long period of time.


 According to the CDC, everyone should keep a distance of 6 feet between each other. As a result, imagining two people trying to shake hands, as long as both can reach a point of at least 3 feet away from their body, they will be able to shake their hands. The average length of a human arm is 2 feet. Wearing the robot arm could add another 0.8 feet. Therefore, the greatest possible total distance a person can reach is 2.8 feet and 5.6 feet between two people. Of course, it cannot perfectly satisfy the 6 feet rule but to some extent, it would still add “some distance” between you and others.



Why 6 feet? The science of social distancing. (Image taken from https://abc7.com/health/why-6-feet-the-science-of-social-distancing/6022704/)

 There is uncertainty with my idea; however, this could help to give people a chance to greet and meet others without worrying  about getting exposed to the virus, and more importantly, it could bring HAPPINESS to everyone at the moment.



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© Jack On The Way 2020

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