By Scott Simmie
You’ll have fun with this story – we promise.
That’s because it involves engineering, entertainment – and a use-case you’ll have to see to believe. Specifically, it involves integrating a set of robotic arms onto a human being. A cyborg, if you will.
This is not the kind of work we do at Indro Robotics (though in the distant future, who knows?). But it is precisely the kind of work the engineers at Hacksmith Industries carry out all the time.
If you’re into engineering, wild builds and superheroes, odds are you’re familiar with their outrageously successful YouTube channel. Perhaps you’re even one of its 15.1 million – and counting – subscribers. As its website explains, “We make it real. We take ideas from the worlds of movies, TV, games, and comics to make real working prototypes! We make the impossible into reality every day.”
And they do.
Think of things like Thor’s hammer, from the Marvel Entertainment franchise. Or maybe Captain America’s shield. These are objects that the geniuses at Hacksmith create using solid engineering – combined with wry humour. The entire projects, from beginning to end, are documented on video and posted to YouTube, where they are tremendously popular. So popular, in fact, that Hacksmith Industries has grown from a small garage-based outfit to a full-fledged enterprise – with its own expansive facility and studio and now 20 employees. Not bad for content creators.
And to help with that content (not that Hacksmith needs the push), here’s an example of what they do: In this case, summoning Thor’s hammer. (And if you like this one, and we’re sure you will, there’s an entire series of other Thor’s hammers to keep you entertained).
THE BACKSTORY
Every Marvel or DC superhero has an origin story. And so too does Hacksmith industries.
It began with two guys – James Hobson and Ian Hillier. They were both builders/makers when they were younger. And in high school, the pair mused about someday working together. That would have to wait, however. Both attended Conestoga College in Ontario’s Kitchener, where they each graduated with a B. Eng. in Mechanical Systems Engineering in 2012.
And after that? Well, explains Hillier, they both took “standard nine-to-five engineering jobs.”
But while they were doing that, the pair worked together on their own projects for fun. And Hobson started making videos for YouTube. He grew that channel to about 60,000 subscribers and was clearly enjoying what he was doing. So he decided to quit work and produce videos full-time.
“And shortly after, I got jealous and quit my job and then joined him,” says Hillier.
With 60,000 subscribers, this wasn’t sustainable in terms of income – at least not without a huge leap in viewership. But they both had their eyes on that eventual prize and continued to push. They also found that doing builds related to superhero powers and other popular action/sci-fi zeitgeist seemed to really bring in views. The turning point, when they realised this could actually be a thing, was when two videos related to Captain America’s shield went viral.
And the rest, with a lot of hard work, is history.
“As we started posting more and more content…somehow that turned into what it is today,” says Hillier. “When I quit my job back in early 2016, I was just kind of thinking: Hey – I want to do this full-time. I wasn’t thinking: ‘Oh, let’s run one of the largest YouTube channels in Canada and let’s have a giant team, a giant facility.’ We do some incredible things here.”
That’s very true. Here’s one of those first viral videos – which Hillier says was one of two shield vids that opened the door to what Hacksmith Industries has become. You’ll note that in addition to the entertaining nature of the video, there’s also some good technical explanation, including how increasing the voltage ramped up the power of the electromagnet significantly. The tech explanations are part of each and every video, and clearly appeal to the inner geek in all of us.
THE INDRO CONNECTION
Many of us at InDro were already familiar with the channel, and Head of Engineering Arron Griffiths is a big fan. But a few members of the Hacksmith team were also somewhat familiar with InDro. In fact, Hacksmith Industries purchased some Unitree quadrupeds from InDro. Plus, InDro had done work with engineer Dave Niewinski, who also works frequently with the Hacksmith team.
But things really got rolling when InDro Vice President Peter King had a tour of the Hacksmith headquarters in Cambridge Ontario. What he saw led to a discussion about possible collaboration. And – fitting with the cool and unusual genre that appeals to Hacksmith team – it was eventually agreed that InDro would supply a pair of robotic arms, which Hacksmith would then attempt to integrate onto a human being.
The concept was somewhat reminiscent of Otto Octavius, also known as Dr. Octopus, from the Spider-Man franchise, along with other multi-armed characters. So that was also a fit. The arms have six degrees of freedom (DOF), which is considered full articulation. That includes three rotational movements (rotating the arm itself, twisting and tilting) and all three linear movements (up/down, left/right, forward/back).
But how do you get robotic arms from the box to functioning on a person? The answer, it turns out, is hard work – including coding, creating a mountable external power supply that looks cool, and a lot of trial and error.
Overseeing the task fell to Charles Holtforster, the team’s Mechatronics Engineering Designer. A graduate of the University of Waterloo in Kitchener, Holtforster did two Co-op placements with Hacksmith while studying engineering and received an offer to be hired upon graduation. He’s been with the outfit since 2020.
“It’s certainly the best job I ever imagined – and it’s not something I ever really dreamed I’d be able to do for a full-time position or a career,” he says. “But, four years later, here we are.”
One of the first things Charles did when this project landed in his lap was to contact Dave Niewinski. Dave is also an engineer who has worked frequently with Hacksmith Industries, and is something of a specialist in robotic arms. He’s also the brains and the face behind Dave’s Armoury, a growing YouTube channel that highlights Niewinski’s own creations.
Dave did the coding to enable control of the arms via an Oculus Quest virtual reality headset and controllers. That meant a second person (Charles) would be responsible for holding those controllers and moving the arms where they needed to go (which resulted in some comedy gold). You’ll see that in a moment. You’ll also see that you can’t simply throw a set of arms on a person; a lot of work went into the right form factor for integration, as well as a power supply that would not only do the job but look Hacksmith-y slick.
R&D
The Hacksmith videos are all really fun. And while we have fun at our Area X.O headquarters, we’re generally working on either R&D for our own products or creating custom robotic solutions for clients. Hacksmith carries out a very different kind of R&D on its own projects, but totally gets the value of more conventional research and development.
“R&D is definitely essential and very, very important,” says Hacksmith Co-Founder Ian Hillier. “Without R&D, there’s no progress.”
Figuring out how to mount a pair of robotic arms on a human is definitely a form of R&D. But is there potentially a use-case? We put that question to Hillier.
“I think humanoid robots are are coming – so on the humanoid robot front I’d say yes,” he says. In fact, Hacksmith plans to do exactly that on a forthcoming video, integrating InDro’s arms with the bipedal Unitree robot you’ll see at the close of the video.
But what about a person?
“As for augmenting humans, I think that’s possible, but in very specific circumstances,” he says. “As an example, someone who has a limb difference. Having prosthetic hands is a perfect example. Or having an exoskeleton that could help with mobility or lifting heavy things.”
Did he say prosthetics? Limb differences? We’re glad he did. Because it reminded us of our personal favourite Hacksmith video. In this one, the team built a flashy prosthetic hand for a young UK YouTuber who was born without a fully-formed left hand. But it wasn’t just flashy; it was a state-of-the-art and fully functional prosthetic. And the team not only adapted it in the style of that YouTuber’s favourite game – they gave it to the young man.
It’s truly a moving video, and one that tells us something else about the Hacksmith team. We’ll drop that video here – right after the one showcasing the robotic arms supplied by InDro.
INDRO’S TAKE
While we’re not sure when – if ever – there will be human cyborgs with robotic arms, we enjoyed this collaboration with Hacksmith Industries.
“The entire InDro Robotics team really enjoyed the video – and seeing R&D from a very different perspective,” says InDro Robotics Founder and CEO Philip Reece. “Hacksmith Industries clearly has some top-level engineering talent. I’d say they’re the kind of people InDro likes to hire – which is true – but we’d have to significantly up our video game, and start leaning more toward superheroes. That’s not likely to happen, but this was a truly entertaining collaboration for us.”
One more thing. We forgot to mention that Hacksmith Industries has developed a very cool line of tech-related toys and tools. You can check out their line here.
And if you happen to be in the market for robotic arms – or anything else robot-related – we have an online store coming early next year. You don’t have to wait for that, however. You can check out our full line of accessories right here. (PS: The NVIDIA Jetson Orin AGX Developer Kit makes for a great stocking stuffer.)