Easton LaChappelle, 19, holds a model of a 3-D printed arm he and his team helped design for their company, Unlimited Tomorrow, located in the Tech Center. LaChappelle came up with the idea while at a science fair in high school in Mancos./Photo by Jennaye Derge
 

Oh, the places you’ll go

Local inventor takes new approach to design, business and ambition

by Tracy Chamberlin

 

At first, he just wanted to figure it out. An instinctive drive to tinker with toys, find out how they worked, and then put them back together.

“I was one of those kids who took apart everything,” Easton LaChappelle, founder of a Durango-based company called Unlimited Tomorrow, said.

Many kids start with tinkering. Some become engineers, others builders, craftsmen, designers, even architects. At some point, each finds a path.

LaChappelle found his at the state science fair when he was a sophomore at Mancos High School.

He met a 7-year-old girl who stopped by his display. She had a prosthetic arm. “It was that ah-hah moment for me,” he said. “I could take what I was doing for fun and change someone’s life.”

LaChappelle realized what he had been tinkering with for years could be something more. So, he focused his time on building a robotic prosthetic hand. One that could do more than just resemble a human hand. It could work more efficiently and cost far less than the $80,000 spent on the one the young girl was using at the science fair.

- For more on Unlimited Tomorrow, visit www.unlimitedtomorrow.com. - To see the Uproxx documentary, check out uproxx.com/technology/2015/01/Easton-lachappelle-luminary.

The first generation of LaChappelle’s robotic hands were built from a creative collection of household items, like electrical tubing and Legos, as well as parts made with a 3D printer.

With each day since, his designs have continued to evolve, his passion has grown and his name is now celebrated.

In 2013, he was asked to deliver a TED Talk on how 3D printing and robotics could be used to make better and less costly prosthetics.

The annual conference on Technology, Entertainment and Design is considered a place for innovative thinkers, declaring the tagline “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

Following his presentation, he got a phone call. On the other line was someone who thought his ideas were not only worth sharing, but worth investing in. Celebrity life coach Tony Robbins wanted to provide the capital LaChappelle needed to turn his tinkering into a brick-and-mortar business.

Since then, it’s been full speed ahead for his startup company, Unlimited Tomorrow.

Most recently, LaChappelle appeared on the TV show “All-American Makers” alongside one of his company’s cofounders, Aaron Blue.

The Science Channel series essentially gives entrepreneurs a chance to get financial backing, as well as marketing advice and manufacturing support from professionals. In the first part of the show, two experts test out the contestants’ products.

With only 2½ weeks’ notice that they would be on the show, LaChappelle and Blue had little time to finish, let alone test their product, the RoboArm.

So, the two weren’t sure what would happen when one of the experts tried to use it for the first time. The arm works by connecting sensors to the bicep muscle of the user’s other arm. When those muscles are contracted or relaxed, the RoboArm moves.

Other versions of LaChappelle’s robotic arms and hands have used other types of controls, like old Nintendo power gloves. Currently, the company is working on mental interfaces, which essentially turn the user’s thoughts into actions. But, he said the technology just isn’t there. Not yet, anyway.

In the end, the expert for “All-American Makers” was able to figure out how to use the RoboArm to pick up a bottle of water. “It was really refreshing to see a stranger use it in a matter of minutes,” LaChappelle said.

He wasn’t, however, able to take a drink or pour the water into a glass. Regardless, all the show’s experts were impressed with that first basic test, enthusiastic about the RoboArm’s potential and excited for the company’s future.

It wasn’t LaChappelle’s first time in front of camera. In January, LaChappelle and Unlimited Tomorrow were the focus of a documentary on an Uproxx original online series called “Luminaries.”

“He’s not just creating one thing,” the website said of LaChappelle. “He’s giving everyone the ability to be their own engineer, to take what was once an involved, arcane process and make it one anyone can do.”

This is, in fact, exactly what he’s trying to do by having the RoboArm open sourced, a model which encourages universal access to a product’s design. It also allows for redistribution and improvements to the original design by anyone who downloads it.

“We wanted to make it as simple and customizable as possible,” LaChappelle said.

Anyone can download the blueprints and make the robotic arm with a 3D printer, or Unlimited Tomorrow will print the parts and ship it off. The user can personalize the unit from there, change the software or tinker with the wiring. It’s up to them.

There’s also the educational component of Unlimited Tomorrow’s business through STEM learning platforms, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, all branches which are considered priorities in the American education system.

Currently, the company is working with schools in Nevada, Tennessee and Michigan. Here in the Southwest, they’re building relationships with Fort Lewis College and have started talking with area schools about bringing their prosthetic robotics to local classrooms.

Between the educational component and the open source designs, what they’re doing is new. “There’s really no business like this,” LaChappelle explained.

He said there’s not a whole lot of competition among prosthetics companies. It’s one of those industries that hasn’t changed much in the past 20 to 30 years.

In order to change lives and not just the prosthetics industry, LaChappelle and Unlimited Tomorrow’s co-founders, Blue and Tim Schneider, are looking to expand the robotic arm into an exoskeleton project. One so light the battery pack could slip in under a foot. One that is affordable, efficient and one day could help paraplegics walk again.

First, they need to weave their way through the federal regulatory maze. The patent process is under way for some of the systems, and the trio is hoping to work with Mercy Regional Medical Center as they pursue FDA approval and move into the clinical trial phase.

This time instead of using spare parts around the house, LaChappelle and his cofounders have access to several 3D printers and a CNC machine, a computer controlled milling machine that allows them to manufacture specifically designed parts in-house.

All this from an idea born at a science fair.

In the few short years since having his “ah-ha” moment at 14, the now 19-year-old LaChappelle has already been featured in Popular Mechanics magazine. He’s also spent time at NASA, working on the Robonaut project for six months.

He’s even met President Obama and watched the U.S. leader shake hands with his robotic one.

When asked what made him believe any of this was possible, LaChappelle said, “I don’t think I ever questioned it.”

Oh, the places he’ll go.