Project Brief: New Hands for Vela

Overview: In the fascinating realm of zoology exists the manus, derived from the Latin term for hand (plural manus), which forms the multi-distal prehensile marvel residing at the forelimb’s termination in primates like humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, lemurs, and even in many robots nowadays.

Within tetrapods, this intricate structure encompasses the metacarpals and digits, showcasing a rich evolutionary history of diverse forms and functionalities.

This project embarks on an intriguing journey that unveils the meticulous process of crafting human-like hands for Vela, which unfolds in three distinct and captivating phases.

Phase : ‘Drew drew an isometric pictorial, which is a three-dimensional ‘before’ drawing of Vela’s new hands involving a coordinate system where the axes are 60 degrees apart. The linear features are drawn parallel to those three axes and at 80% of full scale to closely represent their true size.

The viewpoint was chosen in a skew direction (not parallel to the hand’s axes) to reveal the most information about the design in one view, which makes it easier to imagine how the hand will look (but distorts the dimensions somewhat).

Phase : The ‘after’ foto shows a handmade prototype that Andrew machined from strips of aluminium and brass. This process is half proof-of-concept and half refining each part based on their individual and collective constructive specificities, mechanical functionalities, strength-to-weight ratios, and physical part tolerances and measurements.

Phase : The data developed and collected in phase deux will be used in this phase to create precision plastic and elastomeric parts through stereolithography, which is an additive manufacturing process that uses a vat of liquid UV-curable photopolymer and a UV laser to cure the thermosetting liquid resins into hardened plastic in a process called photopolymerization. By using UV light to solidify the photosensitive polymers, the individual parts will be built up from a tank of resin one layer at a time.

Andrew likes using this SLA (‘3D printing’) technology to create nearly all of Vela’s various substrates, interior mechanical parts and external body segments, as it produces high fidelity, true-to-CAD parts that are super-accurate, strong, durable, and can be colored and polished to a very aesthetically sophisticated, elegant look & feel. [Next project: Vela’s legs!]