Students Develop Low-Cost 3D-Printed Prosthetic Hand with Machine Learning

An interdisciplinary team of students at Miami University is developing an affordable 3D-printed prosthetic hand that costs less than $100 and can be produced within 36 hours. The project, titled “Optimization of 3D Printed Prosthetic Hands,” aims to address the shortage of prosthetic devices in war-affected regions while creating functional and user-friendly solutions.

The prosthetic design combines additive manufacturing with machine learning and myoelectric control. Using noninvasive electromyography (EMG) sensors, the system captures electrical signals from muscles, which are then translated into precise finger and thumb movements through a neural network.

“We pursued this project because we felt there was a need that wasn’t met,” said Tim Archibald ‘25, one of the four team members. “Prosthetic hands are costly, take a long time to produce and replace, and normally involve painful procedures to implement.”

Another team member, junior Eva Goorskey, added, “There’s a lot of really advanced prosthetics out there, but they’re very expensive and we want to increase the quality of life and also preserve the functionality of a hand as much as we can.”

The polymer components used in the design feature varying elasticities and adhesion properties to create a more realistic gripping motion. In addition, self-healing material properties are being explored to extend the system’s lifespan. The students modified the open-source Phoenix Hand V3 design from the e-Nable community to achieve more anatomically accurate functionality.

The research is supervised by Professor Jessica Sparks from the Department of Chemical, Paper, and Biomedical Engineering and biochemist Dominik Konkolewicz. A series of user trials is planned for fall 2025 to evaluate control algorithms and collect user feedback.

“(Konkolewicz and I) were very proud of the students for their scientific and technical progress and also for their excellent teamwork,” Sparks said. “The project is ongoing and much remains to be done, but this team is highly motivated and it has been a pleasure to see how self-motivated and independent they are and how well they communicate and contribute to the group’s success.”

“As a chemical engineering major, a lot of this is not something I’m going to learn in class,” Goorskey said. “Circuitry, machine learning, material science, and 3D printing and modeling: All of these things have enriched my college experience and also my skillset as a future engineer.”

In the long term, the project aims to contribute to a scalable manufacturing method that makes additive technologies for medical devices more accessible worldwide.