Pakistani Startup Develops a Working Bionic Arm for a WAPDA Employee [Video]

Not many entrepreneurs in Pakistan are working with hardware in Pakistan, especially because of the difficulties associated with manufacturing in the country.

Even the companies that do develop their products in Pakistan tend to outsource the bulk of the work to other neighboring countries like China.

However, a certain Pakistani startup, Bionik, has recently hit the headlines for doing some very impressive work in the field of bionics with their prosthetic limbs.

What is Bioniks and what do they do?

Bioniks, one of Pakistan’s first biomedical companies, provides 3D printed prosthetics solutions and surgical planning tools. It was launched by Anas Niaz and Ovais Qarash, two mechatronics engineering graduates from SZABIST.

It started out as an idea for their final semester project and now holds the mantle of being the only 3D printed prosthetic manufacturer in the country.

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Situated at the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Bioniks is a subsidiary of Viscous.co, a 3D Printing Equipment & services provider and authorized representative of Xplorer 3D Printers in Pakistan.

A couple of years back, Bioniks hit the news for providing a 5-year-old kid with a partially developed arm with an Iron Man-themed prosthetic limb — one of the first prosthetic limbs ever to be made in Pakistan. Since then, they have come a long way and just recently helped improve the life of another person — a WAPDA employee who lost his arm while on duty.

The employee, Rao Zafar, traveled to Karachi to receive the prosthetic limb — conceived, designed and manufactured in Pakistan. You can see the arm in action in the video attached below as Zafar uses the arm for the first time. Although it is hard for him to grip things at first, it does seem like he is getting more comfortable with it as time passes by.

While Bioniks has only worked on upper limb prosthetics in the recent past, they do have plans to develop lower body limbs, 3D printed dental implants, and even supplementary bone structures for patients suffering from degenerative conditions.

Image — TctMagazine