From Injury To Innovation: Building A Practical Myoelectric Hand with Ryan Saavedra

Send us a text

We share a personal update and then dive into how injuries, curiosity, and tough feedback shaped a modular myoelectric hand that is lighter, repairable in minutes, and priced for wider access. Ryan Saavedra of Alt-Bionics walks through additive manufacturing choices, PDAC approval, and a roadmap linking prosthetics with humanoid robotics.

• user and clinician pain points shaping design choices
• modular finger architecture for fast field repairs
• nylon 12 and MJF for strength, weight, and cost
• tolerancing to reduce lash and improve reliability
• pricing philosophy, PDAC approval, and reimbursement nuance
• EMG control foundations, firmware over AI for stability
• balancing service bureaus vs in-house manufacturing
• funding from bootstrap to mission-aligned investors
• product roadmap focused on hands and higher DoF
• cross-pollination between prosthetics and robotics

Special thanks to Advanced 3D for sponsoring this episode.

Support the show