DARPA’s Better Bionic Arm
June 28th, 2007Via: Popular Mechanics:
It’s an ambitious deadline: By 2009, DARPA hopes to have a mechanical arm whose functionality is on par with a flesh-and-blood limb. A new arm developed by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is just as ambitious, allowing its user to actually feel an object in his grasp.
Proto 1, the first prototype to come out of DARPA’s prosthetic initiative, was tested by Jesse Sullivan, a lineman who lost both of his arms in an accident six years ago. Proto 1 was attached to nerves in Sullivan’s chest and shoulder, much like prosthetics he’s tested in the past. But instead of simply watching his fingers close on a plastic cup, Sullivan received direct sensory feedback, triggering the sensation of grip in the nerve receptors that map to his missing hand. Proto 1 also allows for more natural walking, since it can swing freely.
APL expects to complete Proto 2 by the end of the summer. That arm should be stronger, faster and more flexible, and will provide even more sensory feedback, including limb position and temperature. The catch: To accommodate more advanced prosthetics, users will need to become even more bionic, replacing surface electrodes with tiny sensors that will be implanted or injected into the body.
you can see the arm in action here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hzRja9eunY&v2
it was on boingboing a while ago:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/17/a_closer_look_at_dea.html
Now if we could only develop a bionic brain and install thaem in Members of Congress and the Senate…
Larry Glick,
You beat me to it.
Maybe I shouldn’t have watched the Terminator movies so much as a kid -I’m going to have nightmares now.