Rock climbing is not an accessible sport to people with limb amputations. Currently, there are no commercial prosthetic arms specifically catered to the rough and body-intensive nature of rock climbing.

As the final project for our Manufacturing and Design Communications class, I worked in a group of 4 to design, manufacture, and pitch a prosthetic arm specifically tailored for rock climbing.

For the project, I designed the arm cup that attaches to the amputated limb and interfaces with the wrist, fingers, and body harness. I 3D scanned our user's arm and designed fitments around key dimensions. Once the fitment was made, I 3D printed the arm cup, adjusting printing orientation, wall count, and infill density to account for stresses that the part would be under.

I also designed the fingers of the system. The design mimics a "full crimp" which is a common rock climbing finger orientation. I laser-cut multiple prototypes to get the design as close to a real finger as possible. The holes are toleranced for an RC 3 fit to reduce finger wobble. Once the design was complete I used a Fablight to laser cut fingers out of 1/8" 6061 aluminum.

Finally, I fully assembled each part of the prosthetic arm to ensure proper tolerance of the fingers, the wrists, and the arm bones.

Prosthetic Rock Climbing Arm