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Haydamax Develops Hydraulic Bionic Hand Targeting Under-100-Euro Price
Estonia-registered technology company Haydamax OÜ has announced the development of a bionic hand prosthesis with a target price of up to 100 euros. The project is led by Oxogent Laboratory, and the working name of the development is H-MUSCLE.
The Ukrainian-Estonian technology company Haydamax OÜ, registered in Estonia, announced in November the start of development of a bionic hand prosthesis. The engineering goal of the project is to make the device cost up to 100 euros. This is a target figure for the developers, not a confirmed price of the finished product. The project is led by Oxogent Laboratory, and the working name of the hand is H-MUSCLE.
The key difference of the development is that it abandons the traditional scheme with electric motors and gearboxes. Instead, it is planned to use hydraulic artificial muscles. Such muscles belong to the McKibben type: these are interwoven elastic tubes that contract under fluid pressure. The idea of this design was proposed by the American physicist Joseph McKibben in the 1950s. The core concept of the project is the so-called "muscle mesh", that is, bundles of fibres that wrap around artificial bones. Some of the fibres are planned to be routed into the forearm to provide sufficient contraction stroke. Control is to be built on coordinated groups of muscles rather than on separate channels for each one.
The development is so far at the digital stage. A digital model has been created first, which includes bones, joints and about 40 muscle channels. Natural hand positions were taken from an open dataset that recorded 22 people and 26 everyday tasks. The engineers' focus is on the mobility of the thumb and palm, the precision of grasping, and the manipulation of small objects. A physical prototype does not yet exist, and the digital model is still being refined. No timelines for creating prototypes or starting serial production have been published yet.
The work is to take place in a laboratory in Germany. The first stage of the project, according to the developers, will cost about 1.5 million euros. The design takes into account materials, production technology and the cost of mass assembly from the outset. The main engineering challenge is named as a compact and inexpensive source of pressurized fluid and precise control of this pressure, on which the operation of each muscle depends.
The reason the project attracts attention is accessibility. Modern advanced bionic prostheses cost tens of thousands of euros, which limits their spread among the people who need them. According to the project participants, an affordable hand could expand rehabilitation opportunities in Ukraine and other countries. For Ukraine this direction has additional significance: the need for prosthetics has grown, and the search for low-cost solutions is becoming increasingly relevant.
The development also shows how old ideas can find new application. The principle of the artificial muscle, proposed more than half a century ago, is now considered the basis for a prosthesis that must be cheaper than most modern analogues. At the same time, the team acknowledges that a long path lies between the digital model and a working device, and no dates have been announced so far. The further course of the project will show whether it is possible to combine a low price with the necessary precision of movement.
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