First functional foot-controlled LEGO prosthetic arm

Bioengineering student David Aguilar (Andorra) used LEGO pieces costing only 15 euros to construct a functional prosthetic arm with a grappling pincer, which is controlled by a cord connected to one foot, for eight-year-old Beknur Zhanibekuly (Kazakhstan), who was born with undeveloped arms. Aguilar (who himself uses a self-built LEGO prosthetic arm and goes by the nickname "Hand Solo") presented the "MK-Beknur" to the family - now residing in France - in August 2021.

Aguilar, who himself was born without one arm owing to Poland syndrome, has been building LEGO prostheses since he was nine years old. He claimed his first record in 2017 when he created the world’s first functional LEGO® prosthetic arm. He named it the Mark-I (MK-I) in line with the naming convention of superhero Iron Man and his suits.

In addition to the foot-controlled MK-Beknur arm, Aguilar and his father, Ferran, also devised another configuration (known as the "eMK-Beknur") which includes an intrinsic stylus that is designed to transfer the user's natural electricity, so that Beknur can use it to operate capacitive touchscreens (such as those found on mobile phones and tablets).

These life-changing feats of engineering (previously Beknur has struggled to find prostheses that worked for him) came about after his mother, Zaure Bektemissova, reached out to Aguilar after seeing his story and requested his help.