Bionic+Arm

I'm beginning to make a bionic arm out of common household materials in my classroom at school. I got the idea off of the jets.org link on my page, it really seems exciting! I'll be learning about things such as pnuematic pressure and how efficient water and air can power the arm in comparison to todays world's ordinary machines.

If you look into the link for jets.org ([]) Please note the link does not work anymore, the site was taken over and deleted. you'll see the first idea to get an understanding for the need for the bionic arm in todays world. The experiment is quite simple and only requires 2 socks and 2 ordinary rubbers bands. This part of project is not necassary in any way and I'm sure it's easy to imagine how it would be to lose an arm, but of course it's just an idea to try. Anyways, the project consists of you placing the 2 socks on each hand and then placing the rubber bands over the socks. Then, try to do ordinary things such as picking items up or performing daily tasks, you'll find that it isn't as easy as it once was. Also, you can try to function throughout the day with only one sock on to see how it would be for people who usually have one functioning arm. It's more difficult and downright frustrating isn't it? This is why in today's world the need for the bionic arm is here, and engineers have been tweaking and working on it, for people with disabilities. Basically, we'll be exploring how water pressure and air pressure can power an arm. Also, we'll learn a basic construct of the arm with the terms that apply to it.

First off we need to come to grips with the key terms of the project. We need to understand the vocabulary and how it applies to the arm.
 * **__Hydraulic__**- A system using liquid pressure, this will be a term used to power the arm.
 * __**Pneumatic**__- A system using air pressure, this also will be a term that will used to power the arm.
 * __**Compressibl**__e- A material that takes up less volume as pressure increases. Basically the term will serve as a piston in the arm for power to tranfer.
 * __**Assistive Technology**__- Assistive technology devices are aids which substitute for or enhance the function of some physical ability that is impaired. This term will serve as the extra operators of the arm or the devices used to assist the arm in moving, such as pressure devices.
 * __**Engineer**__- A person who applies his/her understanding of science and math to create things for the benefit of humanity and our world. They are the people who have created the bionic arm in real life and have had to do much more hevay complications in designing it. Of course they've built other things but we are going to narrow down their term for this arm experiment.
 * __**Protractor**__- A device used for measuring an angle. This item will be useful in measuring the degrees of arm movement and how effective the pressure system is working with the arm.


 * __Please note that this project is being put on hold until i gather the sufficient supplies, some are hard to get at the moment.__**