This 22-Year-Old Is Partnering With Industry Powerhouses To Revolutionize Prosthetics

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

BY Alex Knapp
Forbes Magazine

Easton LaChappelle built his first robotic arm when he was 14 years old. In the eight years since, he has founded a company to manufacture them, Unlimited Tomorrow. Now that company has partnered with industry and tech heavyweights like Microsoft, Dassault Systèmes, and Stratasys to scale up the ability to make customized prosthetics. In particular, Stratasys will be working with Unlimited Tomorrow on research and development and will be the exclusive provider of 3D printing for the company.

The end goal for Unlimited Tomorrow is to develop working robotic prosthetics that can be sold for a fraction of the cost that prosthetics are sold for now, and be a perfect fit for its customers, to boot. The company aims to make that possible by 3D printing as much as possible.

The whole structure is 3D printed," said LaChappelle. "Apart from some nuts and bolts and electronics, the full device is 3D printed."

These aren't just any prosthetics, either. The polyjet printing capabilities of the Stratasys printers enable Unlimited Tomorrow to create arms that match their owners' skin tones and even include imperfections like freckles. The arms also feature magnetic "fingernails" that can be painted or otherwise decorated. The arms also feature the ability to charge wirelessly and their haptic feedback enables users to have a sense of touch.

The company has validated its model with its first prototype - now it's aiming to scale. It has partnered with Indiegogo in an equity crowdfunding campaign and aims to produce 100 of its prosthetics by the end of 2018. Its work with Stratasys aims to develop a process by which it can produce its custom products quickly.