Vulcan Augmetics

There are 38 million amputees in the developing world with no access to prosthetics. They cant work and suffer social stigma. We made affordable, modular, plug and play prosthetics that can be fitted at any clinic, and design a wide range of attachments for specific jobs to help amputees get back into the workforce. We work with corporate partners and NGOs to get sponsorship and work placements as part of their CSR and retention programs. Scale this up globally and we can give millions of people their independence and income back and create an adaptable, resilient workforce of upgraded humans ready to thrive whatever the future brings. 

There are 38 million amputees around the developing word without access to prosthetic care (WHO survey). They cannot earn income, suffer social stigma, and become a drain and even shame to their families. Existing prosthetics are hugely expensive, hard to maintain, are only dispensed from a few select clinics, and do not help amputees regain income. And with no income, how can they maintain their prosthetic?

Another problem is that even a high end prosthetic will not help them get a job, especially if they are from a poorer family and have a lower level of education. They will be restricted to entry level physical jobs, and even the most expensive most human-like prosthetic on the market is not as good as a human hand....and employers know this and will act accordingly. So simply copying the human hand is not enough, and is not remotely possible at a price point that people in developing nations can afford.

Statistics are hard to come by in developing nations but in Vietnam alone there are an estimated 1.6 - 3.1 million amputees (Vietnamese MoH, DRD), 70% of whom do not have regular employment. 

We serve no-to-mid level income amputees in Vietnam, and aim to expand to all developing nations. Currently to be an amputee in a developing nation means a struggle to find a job with good income and career prospects (especially with lower education: restricted to entry level, physical jobs). It means no income for yourself, and being a drain to your family. In the case of double arm amputees (approximately 10% of amputees who have contacted us thus far) they need a family member at home with them at all times to take care of them. This means two people now not working, and a much poorer family unit. 

A prosthetic needs to not only give these people independence for everyday function, it needs to offer them a way to earn income. Current prosthetics

We have conducted interviews and surveys with nearly 100 amputees to date, and our UX Executive (and main product tester) is a below elbow amputee. We are working with 4 more amputees who are being given our prosthetic as part of a sponsorship program, and are also serving as our beta testers to get feedback for the final product. 

"Make them proud, independent and rich, then sell them extras."

We make prosthetics in modular components which click together as easily as lego. We offer both a standard human hand model, but also a wide range of attachable modules designed for specialist job tasks. This means that amputees can get a prosthetic and immediately start using it to generate income and support themselves. 

We work with corporate partners to get job placements and sponsorships to ensure this happens. Over time they will return to the company to buy replacements, upgrades and accessories.

The prosthetic system comes in a range of sizes and can attach to a thermoplastic socket which can be made at nearly any prosthetics clinic, allowing easy access and distribution across the developing world. They are entirely interchangeable, and modularity enables us to standardize sides and use mixed manufacturing (mass and 3d printing) instead of bespoke which further cuts costs. 
The price is approximately $1000 (the cost of a new low-range scooter here), which is less than half the price of the nearest substitute whilst offering 3x the functionality. This is also affordable for low income amputees as Vietnamese operate in very tight family units and will make significant purchases as a group. We were repeatedly told in interviews with amputees "Make it worth that price, and we can find the money.". However there will also be many who cant afford this. 

For those we have the UpLift program. NGOs and companies provide sponsorships to give amputees prosthetic arms and job-modules for free, and then the corporate partners provide job placements and training for the amputees to reenter the workforce and regain their independence. The corporate partners get good publicity for their CSR programs and a reliable and high retention workforce (hard to get). The amputees get free prosthetics, a job, and the opportunity to not only survive but be proud and thrive. And Vulcan gets the revenue from the prosthetics and the chance to help these people in a way that will stay with them as long as they live. The pilot program for this is already running, and we are working in conjunction with The Coffee House, one of the biggest cafe chains in the country with a presence in every major city and over 100 branches nationwide. 

Our design philosophy and business model. 

We are not afraid to move away from traditional form factors to make a more useful product. A copy of the human hand is not always the best tool for a job, so we design better tools. 

We are not afraid to move away from conventional manufacturing methods, nor enslaved to technology for its own sake. We combine the cost effectiveness and strength of mass manufacturing with the adaptability and speed of newer methods like 3d printing to create a balance between flexibility and cost effectiveness (accessibility)

Our business model is the first freemium hardware that we know of, and we get someone else to pay the initial costs. 

As many as possible amputees will get their first prosthetic free/subsidised by corporations or NGOs. These same organizations will be providing work placements, ensuring that amputees are able to generate their own income. The modular design means that over the years they will be able to repair or upgrade their product piece by piece, and the users income means that this will be an affordable and practical proposition for them. 

Later on we shall be franchising production of aesthetic extras out to fab labs, further broadening reach and cutting costs (and lowering carbon costs for distribution).

The prosthetic is divided into several modular components. These can be put together in a matter of minutes by an unskilled user. It is controlled using buttons under the toes (simpler, more robust and cost effective than myo sensors) linked to the hand via radio frequency.

List of components/modules:

1. The socket, which can be made by any local orthotics clinic around the world

2. The connector, which links the socket to the prosthetic.

3. The forearm, which includes the battery socket and wrist connector

4. The battery, including power display

5. The hand, with a single servo driving 3 hand functions: bottle grip, key grip, pinch grip. Controlled using custom PCB with RF chip. 2 speeds and idle mode.

6. Control Box: Sensor box with strap to be worn around ankle, with power and link display.

7. Insole: Special insole with 2 buttons under the toes, linked to control box by single wire. 

(8). Modules: A wide range of functional attachments designed for specific work or leisure tasks. 

Giving people a free prosthetic doesnt work. They are often not useful products, the amputees cant use them well and lack the motivation to persist, they are ugly, and they still require the same maintenance and access to expertise as a paid one. Frequently they are abandoned before the amputee has even had a chance to adapt. 

Our prosthetics are designed with these problems in mind. They can be sold or sponsored, so access is not a problem and even for those receiving the free product it is NOT a castaway or something designed for charity, but a real working product with value. Pride matters. We also offer work placements through our corporate partners, with clear career paths so amputees can get straight back into work and have independence not only at home, but financially. They can earn enough to support themselves and their family. The prosthetics are designed to be visible, and aesthetic. Users should feel confident and happy to be seen with the product in public. So far our response from our testers has been about 80% positive towards the look we have chosen (a big concern for many).

Our goal is to make people independent, financially secure, and not just proud but admired. We benefit by having successful people come back and buy replacements, accessories and upgrades. We just have to give them the right tools and opportunities to get there. 

Tools.

Opportunity.

Mindset.

We are currently serving 5 people. We have a waiting list of 50 beneficiaries and funding to fit 30 of them, which we will be doing over the next few months. 

This is pre sales, as part of our UpLift project. We will move to sales in late 2019 or early 2020. The goal for the first year is 250 units. The goal for 3 years (as far as we have projected) is to have served 8,500 people. 

In five years we want to have a product and business model so adaptable and replicable that we will have served 40,000 people. 

But thats just 0.1% of the people out there, so we will be aiming to do better. 

In the next year we aim to serve 250 people

In the next 5 years 40,000

Manufacturing and fitting bottlenecks

Suitable financing, outsourcing, intensive training, and franchising.

Full time:

CEO

CTO

GM

Uplift Project Manager

Part Time:

CPO

Chief Designer

Chief Fabricator

Fabricator

Designer

UX Executive

We have a wide range of nationalities, backgrounds, skills and experiences.
Our CEO grew up alongside the biggest disabled college in the UK, and has since had a longstanding passion for technology as an enabling force. 

Our CTO is from Jaipur, home of the best known free prosthetics program in the world, and has extensive engineering and coding expertise as part of both his professional career (ex-Intel) and as a member of the local maker community. 

Our CPO is one of the top prosthetics experts in the country, with decades of experience in the field, runs his own clinics, and has a degree in mechanical engineering. 

We have a design team comprised of mechanical and electronics engineers who are trained and proficient in agile practices for hardware (not easy).

Our UX Executive is an amputee himself, and is passionate about helping other amputees. Above all he is driven by seeing them achieve the same confidence and comfort that he has, and he works closely with our GM  and engineering team to make sure our products are giving people the support they need. 

We have the right combination of skills and talents, are highly motivated, are in the right place at the right time, and have developed in 18 months what others have taken 4 years. All this whilst on a shoestring budget and split across 3 locations in the city. 

HPDF

DRD

UNDP

The Coffee House

BBI

EIU

We sell the basic core model to clinics, hopspitals, NGOs and amputees who can afford it, and use corporate sponsorships and NGO funding to give it to amputees who cant afford it. These same corporate partners also provice job placements and training for the beneficiaries as part of their CSR activities. 

Amputation doesnt go away, so we are building lifelong relationships with each person we help. Over time as they reenter the workforce and regain independence they can come back and over time replace or upgrade their prosthetic as they see fit. This represents a more steady stream of income for the company, but also allows users to defray their costs over time and arrange better financing (which our partners can help with). 

Key customers:

mid income amputees 

Clinics

Hospitals

NGOs

Corporate partners

Beneficiaries:

no/low income amputees.

Sales. 

We will sell the product to amputees and organizations, or sell it to our own in house non-profit program, UpLift. UpLift is in turn funded by private sponsors, NGOs, grants, etc. 

Our beneficiaries will have job placements and a career path open to them, and will over time come back to buy replacements, upgrades and extras. Our product is affordable and modular enough for this to be a more practical financial proposition than one huge unaffordable bill when the whole arm is replaced every 3 years (current industry average). 

We make money by selling arms. 

We make money by selling the modules and extras for the arms.

We make money by expanding our modules to be used for other physically impaired people. 

Longer term we want to have prosthetics that learn their users. 

Currently there is a long learning period for an amputee to get used to and calibrate their new prosthetic. AI could cut that time down drastically. 

It can also be used to assess and automatically create 3d printable socket files from images and scans of users. Currently this is still a manual process. 

Imagine walking into a prosthetics lab for the first time in your life, and walking out 3 hours later with a new arm that fits and works perfectly.... 

The prize will go towards developing further modules for jobs, specifically computer interactions and office jobs, which will enable us to get more a wider range of work placements and partners and put more amputees back into the workforce. 

This money will directly help us to put underrepresented and stigmatized people back into the workplace with a sense of pride and confidence, generate their own income and value, and change how society perceives amputees and users of prosthetics. 

We will be using this prize to create an online platform which will enable amputees to get the resources they need to move from trauma to acceptance, find clinics and facilities for treatment, have full and transparent access to the full range of prosthetics, and the financing to get them if needed, as well as access to our designers (and later external designers) to request specific modules and attachments be made so they can do new tasks, activities or sports.