Mkono-1

A 3D-Printed hand to cater for the needs of Tanzanian Amputees.

Africa lags far behind when it comes to empowering amputees with functional prosthetic devices.

Traditionally these equipment have never been affordable to middle and low income local communities.
Those who have access to any prosthetics or rehabilitative device amount to a meagre 17% in Africa.
The prosthetist to amputee ratio is scant.
in Tanzania and other African countries the risk of being at amputee risk is large due to motorbike accidents, Albino limb amputation for witchcraft.
No industries manufacture functional battery powered prosthetics in East Africa.
The prevalence of amputation ranges from 46.1 to 9600 amputees per 100,000 in the total population. Giving them access to the Mkono-1 will greatly enhance their domestic and social lives by giving them a partial functionality, which an aesthetically pleasing artificial non-functional hand cannot.

The Mkono-1 uses 3D-printed Acrylo Butadiene Styrene (ABS), tough polylactic acid (PLA) and carbon reinforced filament to make a sturdy lasting prosthetic that is built to last.

High performance servomotors to mimic the movement of each finger and multifilament braided high tension strings to act as a tendons.
A microprocessor forms the heart of the circuit, although in the future we want to replace it with FPGAs Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) for digital signal processing and AI embedded applications.
incorporate the hook and pinch grip patterns and more grip patterns will be available and offered in subsequent software updates as we tweak the code.
We want to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms in subsequent upgrades as we engage an AI expert in the project and further our research.

Developing a 3D-printed hand to cater the needs of Tanzanian amputees CALLED MKONO-1 since its inception 2019.

Battery powered and can be recharged with a mobile phone charger.
The first locally manufactured myoelectric hand in Tanzania using a microcontroller and in-house printed circuit board design using the Voltera plotter
Made in-house with a vibrant team of local Tanzanians.
The Mkono-1 is arguably the first in Eastern Africa and the cheapest of its kind in Africa.
Our hand is of low maintenance and its spare parts can be readily obtained.
Every patient who buys our product will be eligible for free software upgrades.
Currently working on upgrades to produce new prototypes.
Mkono-1 will be at par in functionality with similar products in the European, Indian and American markets, only to be much reasonable in price.

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