The US military is funding a project to build a motor-driven, lightweight prosthetic arm that is designed to offer an unprecedented range of movement for those who have lost limbs.
Dr. Linda Resnik, a research health scientist with the VA, told us the so-called modular DEKA arm -- a collaboration by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), VA Research (an arm of the Department of Veterans Affairs), and a small prosthetics company called DEKA Research -- uses battery-powered motors and a range of controls to give upper-limb amputees more customized control over movements. Resnik is the principal investigator for the VA Study to Optimize the DEKA Arm.
In 2008, DARPA provided DEKA with funding to design and develop an initial prototype of the arm through its Revolutionizing Prosthetics program. The VA joined the R&D effort in 2009 to "get the prototype into the clinical research environment and test it and obtain feedback to optimize it," she said.
An amputee uses a DEKA arm to drink from a bottle of water. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and VA Research are working with DEKA Research to optimize the modular and motorized arm -- the most advanced arm prosthetic to date -- for commercial use. (Source: DEKA)
Many people who have lost an arm or part of an arm tend not to wear a prosthetic, because it is heavy and cumbersome. The DEKA arm is meant to address this problem by being lightweight -- it's made primarily of aluminum and weighs only about 3.6kg, according to DEKA. The arm is also modular, consisting of separate shoulder, elbow, or wrist pieces that can be worn together or separately as a patient requires, Resnik said.
The arm also features a powered shoulder joint that can rotate in three directions, providing a wide range of movement. The modular wrist can rotate in and out, giving users "movement in the wrist that is not available in current devices," she said.
The arm is controlled by a sensor on the foot ? I would have hoped they could have sensors at the shoulder that could somehow use nerves that originally controlled the arm movements. And a selection of hands / grippers ? Since this is still in development I can understand that one 'hand' model doesn't combine fine, precise movements and 'strong' movements due to feedback issues.
Yes, since this is still in testing, Glenn, different kinds of controls may come into play in the future as users provide feedback. The hand grips are quite unique and allow for more freedom of movement than merely a static prosthetic hand would.
It would be nice if the nerves could be used in controlling the arm's movement. For some reason, I'm thinking I saw a prosthetic limb that was using the nerves to control movement.
This is a really interesting article and a worthy R&D project.
That is some neat stuff. I like doing what I'm doing now, but I'd love to be working on something that will have such a profound impact in the immediate quality of people's lives.
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"The shoulder, elbow, and wrist pieces can be worn together or separately" immediately brings forth memories of Robert Heinlein's "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" in which the protagonist changes prosthetic hands depending on the current task.
Granted the sensor inputs are still a bit primitive, but look at the adances so far! This is science fiction turned real, and very exciting to see.
Great stuff. It only makes sense that the advances in electronic motion control could make a big difference in these types of applications, especially in terms of more advanced movements. Sensor inputs could be key to expanding the possibilities of this technology. Thanks.
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