BLINC Mentors at WISEST CHOICES Conference

On February 20th and 21st the BLINC lab volunteered at the WISEST CHOICES Conference, where groups of Grade 6 girls visit the University of Alberta from all over the city and beyond to learn and get excited about Science, Engineering & Technology.

The students who attended our activity learned all about prosthetic devices and designed their own string-powered paper prosthetic hands. We had a blast and appreciate all of the wonderful questions and insights from the students and teachers!

Happy Holidays from the BLINC Lab!

From everyone at the BLINC lab we wish you all the very best for the Holiday Season! We are looking forward to lots of exciting research in the New Year!

BLINC Mentors at DiscoverE

This summer the BLINC lab volunteered with the DiscoverE Senior Robotics camp! We introduced the students to the basics of text based coding and they used their skills to control individual fingers of the HANDi Hand. We had a great time and were very impressed by the knowledge and curiosity of the campers. A few quotes from the students:

“I really enjoyed this presentation because I’ve always wanted to learn a coding language, now I know how to code an Arduino board. I think I want to go into Robotics some day.”

“I really enjoyed how they gave us the opportunity to apply our learning from the presentation to various hands and activities that really helped me understand programming and its importance in almost all robots. I also enjoyed the group discussions so that we could share our ideas with other classmates. I had an amazing time learning about something I was interested in too.”

Handi Hand Release

We just launched the much hand-ticipated open source files for the HANDi Hand! The initial release includes all 3D print files, STEP files, assembly manual, and Arduino sketches you need to build your own HANDi Hand. You can also look forward to future releases of exciting related projects, including an inexpensive data glove for intuitive control.

Girl Guides Visit the Lab

On April 25th, the BLINC lab hosted the 77th Edmonton Guides. Together we learned all about engineering, prosthetic devices, tools, and robotics. The girls even had a chance to make their own paper prostheses!

What an intelligent, curious, and enthusiastic group of girls. Thanks for stopping by!

Open Source Software for the Bento Arm is Live

We just launched an open source software called brachIOplexus for mapping from human interfaces to robotic arms. The initial release includes a multi-joint mapping between an xBox controller and The Bento Arm. Future releases will add support for additional controllers, interfaces and robots as well as options for custom mappings. Head over to BLINCdev to find out more about the Bento Arm, and download the software from GitHub here.

SMART Network Launch

Today was the official launch of the SMART (Sensory, Motor, Adaptive, Rehabilitation, Technology) Network – what a great event! We are excited to be working in such an interdisciplinary team dedicated to improving health outcomes from so many different perspectives.

Here are some behind-the-scenes photos from our lab tours today.

Welcome New Trainees!

With the start of the new semester, the BLINC lab will begin working with some new trainees. We would like to welcome  Quinn, McNiel, and James to the lab. Shortly, these three new students will begin their master’s research in some of the exciting projects being performed in the BLINC lab.

Welcome to the team!