Girls Scouts Help Develop Prosthetic Hand

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Remember Girl Scouts? Learning basic skills, some survival skills, chatting with the elderly, making s’mores? How about building prosthetics for toddlers so they can write? The Flying Monkeys, a Girl Scout troop in Iowa, have developed (with assistance) a working prosthetic hand for three-year old Danielle (pictured to the left), who was born without fingers on her right hand. She can now write better than she could with human fingers.

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The project was inspired by one of the Flying Monkeys (who are aged 11 to 13) who has a limb difference. And along with a prosthetics maker and an occupational therapist, the Scouts’ robotics team came up with the BOB-1 tool, “a design that has a platform strapped to the arm as well as a cylindrical holder for writing implements or other tools.” In other news, the Boy Scouts still think their new robotics badge is “ehhh, pretty cool, I guess.”

The creation of the BOB-1 was part of the FIRST Lego League competition and part of the STEM effort to promote girls’ exposure to science, technology, and engineering. As a result of their device, the Flying Monkeys have earned an FLL Global Innovation award of up to $20,000 to patent the invention and will soon be working with Danielle’s family on a similar device for a five-year-old boy.

And if that doesn’t impress you, another team in St. Louis — competing in the FIRST championship — developed “a rear-view camera and sensor system on a wheelchair to improve visibility and navigation.”

Imagine what they could do for the space program …

(CNET via Gizmodo)


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