First Iteration of our Design Plan:

In our original design we had 1 potentiometer (attached on the center of the chest ), 3 accelerometers (on the arm), connected by wires, and pvc pipes. We were also going to use a vacuum pump to hold on to different objects. This pump was originally composed of a balloon that contains: coffee grounds, pneumatic tubing, and a funnel. We could have used inertial sensors instead of potentiometer, but the idea of using a potentiometer was more cost effective. 

This is the vacuum pump that we were going to make in order to hold on to different objects. Click on the link below to view a video of this product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GF9fP2SoU-k

We were also going to use a 3-D printer to print out the exoskeleton of the arm. The print out parts were going to be used to cover the sensors and wires.