Open Bionics

Open Bionics is a British medical robotics company, based in Bristol, England, that designs and manufactures low-cost, 3D-printed myoelectric prosthetic arms for people with below-elbow limb difference. Founded in 2014 by roboticist Joel Gibbard and journalist Samantha Payne, the company is best known for the Hero Arm, which it markets as the world's first medically certified 3D-printed bionic hand and prosthetic arm. Open Bionics combines additive manufacturing, muscle-signal (electromyographic) control, and licensed pop-culture styling under the mission statement "we turn disabilities into superpowers." In April 2025 it launched two next-generation devices, the Hero PRO and the Hero RGD (Rugged), which it describes as the only fully wireless and waterproof multi-grip bionic hands on the market.^[1][2]

At a glance

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History and founding

Open Bionics grew out of the Open Hand Project, an open-source effort that Joel Gibbard began after studying robotics at the University of Plymouth. Gibbard had experimented with robotic hands from the age of 17, iterating through hundreds of prototypes with the goal of using 3D printing to drive down the cost of hand prostheses, which conventionally run to tens of thousands of pounds.^[6][9] He formally founded the company in 2014 together with Samantha Payne, a Bristol journalist who had interviewed him while covering social-impact stories and who became the company's chief operating officer. The company is headquartered in Future Space, an innovation center co-located with the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, giving it access to academic robotics research.^[6]

Early recognition came quickly. Gibbard's work won a UK James Dyson Award and a Tech4Good accessibility award in 2015, followed by a Bloomberg Business Innovators award in 2016. In 2017 the company won the $1 million UAE AI and Robotics Award for Good, and in 2018 the founders were named the "Hottest Startup Founders in Europe" at the Europa Awards. Both Gibbard and Payne were appointed MBE in 2020 for services to innovation, engineering, and technology.^[6][9]

The commercial breakthrough was the Hero Arm, which Open Bionics rolled out across the United Kingdom on 25 April 2018 and positioned as the world's first medically certified 3D-printed bionic arm.^[8] A US launch followed in 2019, backed by a $5.9 million Series A round in January 2019 led by the Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund, Ananda Impact Ventures, and Downing Ventures, with participation from Williams Advanced Engineering (the engineering arm of the Williams Formula One team).^[6][7] The company has since raised further capital through grants and crowdfunding campaigns on Crowdcube (in December 2022 and February 2024), reporting more than 10 million pounds raised in total investment and grants.^[2][6][16]

The Hero Arm

The Hero Arm is a myoelectric prosthesis for below-elbow (transradial) amputees and people with congenital limb difference, available to adults and to children as young as eight, one of the youngest fitting ages for a multi-grip bionic hand.^[1] Each device is 3D-printed to the individual's measurements from a 3D scan of the residual limb, which keeps both cost and weight low: a standard-size Hero Hand weighs about 340 grams (12 ounces), and Open Bionics rates it to lift up to 8 kilograms (about 17.6 pounds).^[1]

Control is proportional and myoelectric. Muscle sensors in the socket detect electrical activity from muscle contractions in the residual limb and translate them into finger movements, so that a stronger muscle signal produces a faster or firmer grip.^[1] The original Hero Arm offers six selectable grips (including precision pinches for small objects, a full power grip, and gestures such as a thumbs-up), a "freeze" mode to hold a grip, a posable thumb, and roughly 180 degrees of manual wrist rotation. Haptic vibrations, beepers, and lights give the wearer feedback about grip state and battery level, and a companion Sidekick App provides training exercises for new users.^[1]

A defining feature is aesthetics. Rather than mimicking skin, the Hero Arm uses magnetically attached, swappable covers, of which Open Bionics offers more than 50 designs. Licensed collaborations have produced Star Wars covers (including BB-8 and R2-D2 themes), a Marvel Iron Man cover, a Disney Frozen cover, and a Deus Ex cover developed with the game studio Eidos-Montreal.^[1][6] This "cool by design" approach is central to the company's superpowers messaging and has made the Hero Arm a recognizable object in disability advocacy.

By the mid-2020s the Hero Arm was available in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, with fittings offered through more than 800 clinical locations in the US and a network of partner clinics; Open Bionics has reported that more than 600 Hero Arms had been delivered.^[2][6]

Hero RGD and Hero PRO

On 15 April 2025 Open Bionics launched two next-generation bionic hands, the Hero PRO and the Hero RGD (Rugged). The company says the pair were developed over roughly four years at a cost of about $2.5 million, drawing on feedback from around 1,000 existing Hero Arm users, and it markets them as about twice as fast as leading bionic hands and as the only fully wireless and waterproof bionic arms available.^[2][5]

The central engineering change is the elimination of external wiring. Both devices use MyoPods, Bluetooth-enabled wireless EMG electrodes that sit on the skin over the residual muscles and stream muscle signals to the hand, replacing the wired electrodes of earlier systems. Open Bionics also moved to a two-pad EMG sensor (an industry first, versus the conventional three-pad arrangement) and packed the battery and all electronics into the palm of the hand, which the company says is the first design built to house a battery in the hand itself. Removing external cables allowed the hand to be sealed, giving it an IPX7 rating: it can be submerged in up to about 1 meter (3 feet) of water for up to 30 minutes.^[2][5] Both hands attach through a titanium and steel USMC-standard wrist connector, part of a water-safe Hero FLEX socket, and can be swapped for more than 50 activity attachments. Because control is wireless, the hand can be detached from the socket and still operated, a capability the company demonstrated (and press coverage described) with a detached hand moving across a surface.^[4][5]

The two models share the wireless architecture but target different users:

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The Hero PRO is pitched as a lightweight, customizable everyday hand, which Open Bionics rates to carry up to 57 pounds, a figure it describes as roughly double the carry load of the original Hero Arm.^[3] The Hero RGD is the industrial variant, built to shrug off impacts and rated to carry up to 35 kilograms (77 pounds) for tasks such as hauling tools, sacks, or hay bales.^[4] Both are FDA-registered and PDAC-approved in the United States, and Open Bionics says they are funded by Medicare, some Medicaid plans, and various private insurers.^[2]

Myoelectric control and how it works

Like other advanced upper-limb prostheses, the Hero Arm is controlled by electromyography (EMG). Small skin-surface electrodes detect the faint electrical signals produced when the wearer contracts muscles in the residual limb; the device amplifies these signals and maps them to motor commands that open and close the fingers.^[1] Because the Hero Arm reads the strength of the signal, control is proportional, so gentle muscle activity yields slow, delicate movements and stronger activity yields faster, more forceful grips. Different muscle patterns, or a co-contraction, let the wearer cycle between the available grip modes.

This muscle-signal approach differs from the position and vision-based control used in research-grade dexterous hands for humanoid robots, where the goal is autonomous manipulation rather than restoring intent-driven movement to a human wearer. In a prosthesis the human supplies the intent and the sensing challenge is decoding it reliably from noisy muscle signals, which is why the wireless MyoPods and the noise-rejecting two-pad sensor introduced with the 2025 models are significant: they aim to make signal pickup more consistent while removing the wires that previously limited comfort and waterproofing.^[5]

Regulation, access, and cost

The Hero Arm is registered with the US Food and Drug Administration as a Class I medical device and carries CE marking, and Open Bionics highlights ABC accreditation of its US clinical operations.^[1][8] Affordability is the company's core value proposition: it positions the Hero Arm as roughly five times cheaper than comparable multi-grip bionic arms, which can cost up to about 60,000 pounds. Reported pricing varies by pathway; Open Bionics has cited device ranges starting near $5,999, while an out-of-pocket Hero Arm in the US without insurance has been reported at around $20,000 to $24,000. In practice more than 70 percent of US bionic arms are funded by insurance, so many wearers do not pay the full price.^[15]

Access in the United Kingdom has evolved. In September 2021 Open Bionics opened its own in-house clinic in Bristol so that patients could be assessed and fitted privately, without waiting for National Health Service approval.^[10] In August 2022, following two completed studies, NHS England announced funding for multi-grip myoelectric devices for eligible patients, expanding coverage that had previously been limited largely to single-grip devices and military veterans. Under the policy the Hero Arm is eligible for NHS funding, though patients typically must meet criteria such as sufficient residual muscle activity, ongoing follow-up, and, for new users, a successful 12-month trial with a single-grip device first.^[10]

Reception and milestones

Open Bionics has become one of the most visible names in consumer prosthetics, in large part through advocacy and pop-culture tie-ins. In 2016 it collaborated with Eidos-Montreal to build a functional Deus Ex "Jensen arm" for UK games fan Dan Melville, which Guinness World Records recognized as the first prosthetic limb based on a video game.^[11][12] In early 2019 the company partnered with 20th Century Fox to give teenage ambassador Tilly Lockey a pair of arms inspired by the film Alita: Battle Angel; Lockey walked the London premiere alongside director James Cameron and star Rosa Salazar, and has since served as a long-running Open Bionics ambassador and product tester.^[13] In 2023 the company also fitted Hero Arms to Ukrainian soldiers who had lost limbs in the war.^[6]

The 2025 launch of the Hero PRO and Hero RGD drew trade and consumer-tech coverage framing the devices as among the most versatile prosthetic arms yet, with particular attention to the waterproofing and the detachable, wirelessly controlled hand.^[2][14][17] Within the broader field of advanced bionic hands, Open Bionics is frequently compared with peers such as PSYONIC (maker of the Ability Hand), COVVI, and Alt-Bionics, which pursue similar goals of multi-articulating, more affordable myoelectric hands.

Limitations

As a below-elbow (transradial) device, the Hero Arm addresses a specific population and is not suitable for every level of limb difference; it requires enough residual muscle activity to generate usable EMG signals, and fitting depends on a trained prosthetist. Myoelectric control, while intuitive, remains coarser than a natural hand: grips are selected from a fixed menu rather than each finger being independently controlled, and the hand lacks the fingertip tactile sensing found in some research prostheses, so users rely on vision and haptic cues. The devices are also relatively costly without insurance, and while the 2025 models improve speed and durability, independent, peer-reviewed performance data for the newest hands remains limited, with many headline figures (speed, "world's only" claims, carry loads) sourced from the company itself. Finally, NHS and insurance access, though expanded since 2022, still involves eligibility criteria and administrative hurdles that not every candidate will clear.^[1][2][10]

See also

• PSYONIC
• COVVI
• Alt-Bionics

References

1. Open Bionics, "The Hero Arm is a Prosthetic Arm Made by Open Bionics." https://openbionics.com/hero-arm/ ↩
2. Open Bionics, "Open Bionics Sets New Benchmark with Launch of Hero RGD and Hero PRO." https://openbionics.com/open-bionics-sets-new-benchmark-with-launch-of-hero-rgd-and-hero-pro/ ↩
3. Open Bionics, "Hero PRO." https://openbionics.com/hero-pro/ ↩
4. Open Bionics, "Hero RGD." https://openbionics.com/en/hero-rgd-2/ ↩
5. Open Bionics, "Building the Next Generation 3D Printed Bionic Arm and the Industry Firsts Behind It." https://openbionics.com/building-the-next-generation-3d-printed-bionic-arm-and-the-industry-firsts-behind-it/ ↩
6. Wikipedia, "Open Bionics." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Bionics ↩
7. TechCrunch, "Open Bionics closes $5.9M Series A for its affordable and cool bionic limbs" (14 January 2019). https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/14/open-bionics-closes-5-9m-series-a-for-its-affordable-and-cool-bionic-limbs/ ↩
8. 3ders.org, "Hero Arm: Open Bionics to roll out 'world's first' medically approved 3D printed bionic arm" (30 March 2018). https://www.3ders.org/articles/20180330-hero-arm-open-bionics-to-roll-out-worlds-first-medically-approved-3d-printed-bionic-arm.html ↩
9. Open Bionics, "Our story: making 3D prosthetics beautiful." https://openbionics.com/en/our-story/ ↩
10. Open Bionics, "When Will The NHS Fund My Hero Arm?" https://openbionics.com/en/when-will-the-nhs-fund-my-hero-arm/ ↩
11. Guinness World Records, "First prosthetic limb based on a videogame." https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/441909-first-prosthetic-limb-based-on-a-videogame ↩
12. Open Bionics Labs, "Open Bionics and Deus Ex become Guinness World Record holders for first prosthetic limb based on a videogame." https://openbionicslabs.com/blog/open-bionics-and-deus-ex-become-guinness-world-record-holders-for-first-prosthetic-limb-based-on-a-videogame ↩
13. Technology.org, "Tilly Lockey Receives Bionic Arms made in Collaboration with the Production Team of Alita: Battle Angel" (28 February 2019). https://www.technology.org/2019/02/28/tilly-lockey-receives-bionic-arms-made-in-collaboration-with-the-production-team-of-alita-battle-angel/ ↩
14. Amputee Store, "Open Bionics Hero PRO & RGD: Advanced Prosthetic Hands." https://amputeestore.com/blogs/amputee-life/open-bionics-hero-pro-hero-rgd-user-feedback ↩
15. Open Bionics, "How much does a prosthetic arm cost?" https://openbionics.com/how-much-does-a-prosthetic-arm-cost/ ↩
16. UWE Bristol, "Bristol Robotics Laboratory supported startup Open Bionics raises 4.6m." https://www.uwe.ac.uk/news/bristol-robotics-laboratory-supported-startup-open-bionics-raises-4-6m ↩
17. TwistedSifter, "World-Leading Bionic Technology Means These Prosthetic Arms Are The Most Innovative And Versatile We've Ever Seen" (September 2025). https://twistedsifter.com/2025/09/world-leading-bionic-technology-means-these-prosthetic-arms-are-the-most-innovative-and-versatile-weve-ever-seen/ ↩