LeTourneau U project-
not DARPA
(click for more)

A Pentagon DefenseLINK story recently touted the progress of prosthetic limb development, fueled by a combination of combat need and the steadily advancing capabilities inherent in modern electronics and robotics. Army Col. Geoff Ling manages DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics programs.

For instance, researchers at Dean Kamen’s DEKA Research and Development Corp. in Manchester, NH (inventors of the Segway, the stair-climbing iBot wheelchair, and those PowerSwim fins that I want), have developed a “strap-and-go-arm” that requires no surgery, just 1-2 hours of training. The process of picking up a pen, key, coffee cup, or power drill obviously differs. Embedded electronics in DEKA’s arm enable the wearer to activate a switch with a foot or chin, to cycle through 5 different gripping actions to match the task at hand. One tester who lost his arm at the shoulder was reportedly able to field strip and reassemble an M-16 rifle using the prosthesis, which comes in 3 models: [1] amputees who have lost a complete arm, [2] amputations above the elbow, and [3] amputations below the elbow. See a picture here.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration have all shown interest in the program, and are expected to join forces with the Defense Department in the months ahead, and getting a governmental agreement in place will be a big step forward to getting the devices mass-produced. Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins University is working on a device that connects into the peripheral and central nervous system under Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009; a Phase 2 contract is expected in the coming months. Read “Defense Agency Makes Big Advances in Prosthetics Research” for more, and see also WIRED’s feature on the JHU project: “The World’s Most Advanced Bionic Arm.”