The bionic arm (prosthetic arm with bio-control) must be entirely built by the participants. Use of Lego parts or any other readymade prosthetic devices is not allowed. However, electrical devices such as batteries, servos, motors, and readymade rods, and hardware etc. may be used.
The arm should typically resemble an adult human arm from elbow onwards with wrist and fingers. It should be able to successfully demonstrate pick and place of five eggs without breaking it and five stones without dropping it from one tray to another kept at a distance of two feet. The maximum dimension of the stones provided would be 4 centimeters.
The bionic arm cannot use any controlling signals other than myo-electric or other ionic signals derived from the live subject from shoulder up to the elbow.
The demonstrator can make use of visual feed back for positioning, picking, gripping, placing through his bionic arm.
The picking up of bio-signals from the live subject should be strictly non-invasive in nature, typically by skin surface electrodes with proper isolation from rest of the circuitry. Any violation to this clause may reject your candidature in part or full at any point of time in the challenge.
The participants have to successfully demonstrate their bionic arm at Techfest 2008 to be eligible for the prize.
The judges will subjectively evaluate the Bionic arm based on these clauses and determine whether the participant has successfully completed the Golden Challenge.
The organizers reserve the rights to change any or all of the above rules as they deem fit. Change in rules, if any will be highlighted on the website and notified to the registered participants.
To obtain accommodation, the participants will have to send abstracts based on following guidelines. Teams will be shortlisted for accommodation on the basis of these abstracts. Please note that the short listing is only for accommodation, you are still eligible to participate even if you are not shortlisted for accommodation.
Please make a ZIP file of the portfolio containing the .doc/ .pdf and .JPG files. Use your registration number to name the ZIP file and send it to gc[at]techfest[dot]org
The last date for submission of abstracts is 15th December 2007.
The Arm Design: Description of the arm design including dimensions and materials used. Use of AutoCAD designs is encouraged.
Arm Motion Profile: Description of the arm, wrist and finger movement profile including the type of actuators and mechanisms used to generate the profile. Use of matlab simulation of the profile is encouraged.
Control mechanism: How the bionic arm obtains control signals from the portion from shoulder up to the elbow. The signals obtained must be strictly bio-electric signals typically from muscles.
Degrees of freedom: A brief description of the degrees of freedom implemented, including how each degree is introduced and how it contributes to achieve a movement similar to that of a natural arm.
PHOTOS of your arm in current state, in JPG format. Note that even photos of incomplete arm can be attached.