Haydamax OÜ, a Ukrainian-Estonian technology company registered in Estonia, announced in November that it has begun developing a bionic hand prosthesis with a target price of up to 100 euros. That figure is far below the cost of high-function bionic prostheses, which typically run into tens of thousands of euros. The project is led by Oxogent Laboratory, based in Germany, and the working name of the device is H-MUSCLE.
The most distinctive feature of the design is its power source. Rather than electric motors, the prosthesis relies on McKibben-type artificial muscles, driven here by hydraulics. The muscle design dates back to the 1950s and was invented by Joseph McKibben. In the H-MUSCLE concept, bundles of fibers wrap around artificial bones at varied angles to form a muscle mesh. Some of the fibers run into the forearm, which allows a longer stroke of movement. Control works through coordinated muscle groups rather than through a separate channel for each finger. The model includes about 40 muscle channels, roughly matching the number needed to approximate a human hand.
To shape the movements, the developers drew natural hand poses from an open dataset covering 22 people performing 26 daily tasks. The design effort concentrates on the thumb, palm mobility, grip precision and the handling of small objects. From the outset, the team has built cost into the design, considering materials, production and the possibility of mass assembly. The 100-euro figure is an engineering target rather than a confirmed product price, and the final price, the list of components and the cost of medical adaptation have not been determined.
So far the project exists only as a digital model. No physical prototype has been built, and the first development stage has cost about 1.5 million euros. The developers acknowledge several unsolved problems, including compact fluid supply, pressure control and coordination among the muscle groups. Reliability, safety and the feasibility of mass production remain untested, and no timelines have been announced for prototypes or serial production.
The project carries particular weight in Ukraine, where demand for prostheses has grown since the full-scale Russian invasion. Affordability is therefore a central question for the country's amputees and for the wider market for bionic devices. Whether a design built around a low price can match the function of far more expensive prostheses is the test the project has yet to face.