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Manual Assistant (hand for upper limb disability) – a new approach designed to restore user's manual capabilities.

Project description

Artificial limbs for the future

Prosthetic limbs have evolved significantly from the world’s earliest functional prosthetic body part, the artificial toes from ancient Egypt. As technology improved, artificial limbs became more sophisticated. The EU-funded Tolka Pro project is developing an artificial hand that looks and moves like a real one. With the use of augmented manuality, extending humans’ manual capabilities, it is creating an advanced/robotic manual assistant device that can be used by people who need it. It is also suitable for research, education and robotics solutions. TOLKA PRO is a medical device allowing the user to define grips and activate them using multiple controllers, including myoelectric and voice, using built-in API interface. The project is currently conducting a technical and commercial feasibility study.

Objective

The World Health Organization estimates that, in the developing world, there are 40 million amputees, and only 5% of them
have access to any form of prosthetic care. Each year about 4 out of every 10,000 babies will have upper limb reductions
~52 000 / year. Currently available upper limb prostheses fall short of restoration of full function, which is one reason for high
rates of abandonment. Moreover, the new prosthesis can be heavy, hard to use and expensive they can cost more than
$100k. The additional costs include: New version/replacement or upgrade when children grow. As a result, access to this
prosthesis is limited and unavailable especially for developing countries where the demand is much higher than the
availability of the prosthesis. At vBionic, we would like to change that. We develop an artificial hand that in its appearance
and movement reflects the natural one. The advanced/robotic manual assistant – TOLKA PRO can serve as a prosthesis for
amputees and congenital malformations controlled wirelessly through API allowing any controller to communicate including
MYOelectric (MYO), EEG (Muse), Leap Motion and voice. In connection with the voice control, we can deliver far more
gestures than any solution available. We create a new market of supportive solution that will be provided in entirely remote
process and will be affordable when it comes to price level aiming to improve manual capabilities and everyday tasks
performance of people who need it. Besides the significant benefits that it will bring to society and the prosthetic sector, it will
open a range of opportunities for the new sectors where the advanced robotic hand can be operated remotely. In Phase 1
we aim to carry a Feasibility Study to verify the project from a technical, commercial and financial point of view. The project
will boost the growth of vBionic expecting to gain € 23 million of net profit, increase employment of 38 new people after five
years in the market.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

VBIONIC SP ZOO
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
NAD WIERZBAKIEM NR 26, LOK. 2
60-612 POZNAN
Poland

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Makroregion północno-zachodni Wielkopolskie Miasto Poznań
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 71 429,00
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