Biomechatronics

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Recommended: Advancements in prosthetics between past and present

When Luke Skywalker's hand was sliced off by Darth Vader in the trilogy Star Wars, he received a new prosthetic hand which was fully functional in use and appearance.Today, this science fiction is becoming reality as an exciting new technology called Biomechatronics is promising revolutionary advances in the field of prosthetics.

As the name implies, biomechatronics merges man with machine. It is an interdisciplinary field including biology, neuroscience and physics. Biomechatronic scientists create devices that interact with human muscle, bone and the nervous systems with the goal of "assisting or enhancing human motor control that can be lost or impaired by trauma, disease, or birth defects."

Today there is a great need in advances in the field of prosthetics. This demand is being generated in large measure by wounded veterans needing prosthetics. While new advances in body armor is saving lives, it is also leading to many limb injuries in soldiers who would not have usually survived. In the first two years of the Iraq war, over 200 soldiers lost limbs.

While health care is still servicing wooden hands designed in the World War I era, many patients are unsatisfied with the unnatural movements, aesthetics, weight and lack of motion in these outdated prosthetics. Colonel Geoffrey Ling, a program manager for the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) who is overseeing a project to improve prosthetics says, "The best hand prosthetic one can get is a hook, right out of Peter Pan. It's heavy, it's clumsy and cosmetically, it's just horrid."

That is why DARPA along with 70 million dollars to John Hopkin's Applied Physics Laboratory are spearheading the work. The projects goals are lofty: APL hopes to design an arm ...

... middle of paper ...

...zine. (2007) On-line.

http://www.baltimoremag.com

Freudenrich, Craig Ph.D.. How Biomechatronics works. (2007) On-line. http://www.howstuffworks.com/biomechatronics.htm

Su, Y. Fisher, M.H. Wolczowski, A. Bell, G.D. Burn, D. Gao, R. Basics of MRI-I. 19 May 2005 'Towards an EMG Controlled Prosthetic Hand Using a 3D Electromagnetic Positioning System' Instrument and Measurement vol. 1, p. 261-266.

Guinnessy, Paul. Sept 2006. 'DARPA joins industry, academia to build better prosthetic arms' Physics Today p. 24-25.

Unknown author. (2007) On-line. Nerve cells. http://www.cidpusa.org/physiology.htm

Herr, Hugh Ph. D. White House/VA Conference /

Emerging Technologies in Support of the New Freedom Initiative:

Promoting Opportunities for People with Disabilities October 13-14, 2004. (2007) On-line. http://www.rehab.research.va.gov/whc2004/day1/pan-herr.html

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