The technology used by most robotic arms and hands on the market - and many more of those in development - typically comes with large overheads.
While other developments in countries like Austria and Argentina have pushed the boundaries of prosthetic offerings, helping those missing limbs to start to regain use of them with robotics, LaChappelle has done so using 3D printing.
In the last five years, though, learning almost exclusively online in forums and emails, LaChappelle, the 19 year old boy from the US, has managed to synthesize a series of robotic hands that could change industries and lives - and most of which cost just a few hundred dollars.
The arms themselves might not look polished and ready for the shop floor - but LaChappelle sees them as cutting edge.
The idea, he said, is not to create something that can solve problems for those with prostheses and other needs for robotic arms like the ones he’s invented - but rather to create a platform that people around the world can use to customize their own versions to suit their needs.
The Anthromod itself cost only about 600 dollars to make, LaChappelle said.
