Prosthetics

Various groups have already developed "thought-controlled" prosthetic hands, that respond to nerve impulses in the user's residual arm stump. A new system could make such hands easier than ever to use, by amplifying those impulses.

Scientists at Caltech and Stanford University have developed a tiny prosthetic that gives jellyfish an ability to swim faster while using less energy, all with the aim of one day using them to monitor the ocean environment.

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.

Amputees wishing to get a powered prosthetic hand – also known as a bionic hand – typically have to wait quite a while for it to be manufactured. Soon, however, they should be able to order a custom bionic hand that's 3D-printed within 10 hours.

Researchers at the University of Utah have been working on an advanced type of prosthetic and are now showing off what they call one of the world’s first truly bionic legs, with an early tester describing it as a Terminator-like experience.

Scientists studying brain-computer interfaces at Johns Hopkins University are reporting a big breakthrough, demonstrating a system that enables a quadriplegic to control and gain feedback from two prosthetics arms at once.

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

A Purdue University team has developed a special type of glove that gives a prosthetic hand some of the sensory capabilities of a human hand.

The latest effort to make use of this throw-away resource uses waste plastic water bottles to make sockets for prosthetic limbs.

​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.​

Scientists at Linköping University have developed an artificial muscle that runs off of glucose and oxygen like its organic counterpart. Made of a special polymer, the new plastic muscles open the promise of implantable artificial muscles that can be powered by like living organs.

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