Prosthetics

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have come up with a better prosthetic hand that uses a hybrid design and a complex sensor system to carefully grip various objects with just the right amount of pressure.

Combining lab-grown muscle tissue with a series of flexible mechanical joints has led to the development of an artificial hand that can grip and make gestures. The breakthrough shows the way forward for a new kind of robotics.

Imagine if one (or both) of your feet couldn't conform to uneven walking surfaces, or flex to spring you forward with each step. That's what it's like for most people who have prosthetic feet, although an experimental new foot could change that.

Currently, almost all powered prosthetic hands utilize electrodes that detect the user's muscle impulses and convert them into hand movements. A new system which is in development, however, should reportedly work better by utilizing ultrasound.

Engineers from MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have developed a prosthetic hand that precisely inflates individual fingers to take hold of objects, while also providing the user with tactile feedback.

Scientists in China have developed an artificial skin for prosthetic devices and robotics that changes color in response to force, mimicking the bruising process to offer a visual sign that damage has taken place.

There are now a number of materials designed to give robots or prostheses a sense of touch. And while most of them are thin and skin-like, a new alternative takes the form of a spongey foam – and it combines several desirable qualities.

There are already computer vision systems and sensor-equipped gloves that can detect a person's hand gestures. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have developed an alternative technology, however, that offers some key advantages.

Given that parents are already reluctant to buy fancy clothes that their tyke will soon outgrow, it follows that they would really question buying their amputee toddler a prosthetic arm. A new prosthesis, however, could prove to be quite inexpensive.

Scientists from the EPFL research institute are developing new technology, in which a computer takes over certain functions of prosthetic hands.

​Tails are used throughout the animal kingdom to help with balance or to grip objects. Humans don't have such a thing, so scientists at the Keio University Graduate School of Media Design have built one to improve the agility of wearers.​

MIT has developed an inexpensive sensor glove​ designed to enable artificial intelligence to figure out how humans identify objects by touch.