We've seen self-healing materials and artificial arms, but a team of researchers hailing from UCLA have taken two fabulous ideas and wed them together to create "an artificial muscle that heals itself and generates electricity." Put simply, the contracting / expanding of the material can generate a small electric current, which can be "captured and used to power another expansion or stored in a battery." The scientists have relied on carbon nanotubes as electrodes rather than metal-based films that typically fail after extended usage, and in an ideal world, the research could eventually lead to (more) walking robots and highly advanced prosthetics. Integrate an AC adapter in there and we're sold.

[Via CNET]

Apparently somewhere along the way Dean Kamen's robo-prosthestesis came to be called the Luke arm (care to guess why?), and according to the IEEE Spectrum blog, it's gearing up to undergo Food and Drug Administration trials pending DARPA's final thumbs-up, which would put the project in motion. Be sure to check out the rest of the profile of the arm's development, which is well worth the read.

If you're suddenly overcome with an eerie feeling of déjà vu, fret not, as this idea has certainly been brainstormed before. As scientists aim to make prosthetic limbs more user-friendly, a certain physiatrist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and professor at Northwestern University has developed a technique that enables artificial arms to react directly to the brain's thoughts. The process, dubbed targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR), works by rewiring residual nerves that once carried information to the now-lost appendage to the chest; when the person thinks to move their arm, the chest muscle contracts, and with the help of an electromyogram (EMG), the signal is "directed to a microprocessor in the artificial arm which decodes the data and tells the arm what to do." Currently, "only" four movements are possible after the procedure, but studies are already in full swing to determine if TMR could be used to bless future patients with an even fuller of range of motion.

[Image courtesy of ScienceDaily]

Yeah, we've seen some pretty fancy robotic arm work already this year, but Festo is out to show 'em all up with its fluidic muscle-packin' Airic's_arm. This robotic prosthesis sports a "bone structure" which mimics that found on a real live human, and can be moved via the 30 "muscles" built within. Essentially, Festo's approach to movement relies on "an elastomer tube reinforced by aramid fibers, which contract quickly and exert a pulling force when they're filled with a blast of compressed air or liquid." Of course, you'll notice it doesn't offer quite the same range as less bionic alternatives, but this thing's pretty accurate, indeed. Check it out for yourself, the video's right down there.

[Via DesignNews]
Read - Festo's Airic's_arm
Read - Video of Airic's_arm in action

A group of researchers at Vanderbilt have built a mechanical arm that outperforms traditional battery-powered prosthetics the old-fashioned way: by strapping on a couple rocket motors. The arm, which the team built for DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program, relies on a modified miniature version of the same rocket motors the space shuttle uses to reposition itself in space: hydrogen peroxide is burned in the presence of a catalyst to produce pure steam, which is then used to move the arm. Unlike the batteries in traditional arms, which die quickly, a small canister of hydrogen peroxide concealed in the arm can last up to 18 hours, and provides about the same power and functionality of a human arm. Cooler still is the method the arm deals with waste heat and steam: just like a regular arm, it's allowed to filter up through a permeable skin, producing "sweat" -- the same amount of perspiration you'd get on a warm summer day, according to the team. Check a video of the arm in action at the read link -- it's even niftier than it sounds.

Touch Bionics, a UK-based prothesis developer, announced today that its i-LIMB bionic hand has been made available for use in the United States and Europe. The i-LIMB is one the first widely available prosthetic hands with five individually powered digits, affording its user a surprisingly wide range of motion. Additionally, the i-LIMB uses dynamic touch detection which can sense when a finger has sufficient grip on on object and stop powering, useful in situations such as holding someone's hand, where too much power can cause, er, problems. Using electric signals generated by working muscles to control the hand, the device is much like traditional myoelectric prosthetics (the signals are sent from electrodes placed on the skin). Touch Bionics has also developed a "groundbreaking" form of cosmesis, a latex sheath which covers the hand that TB claims gives an incredibly realistic appearance. Check the gallery to see for yourself.

[Thanks, Matt]

While some researchers over in Raleigh are having fun tinkering with PlayStation 3 farms and dodging the RIAA, NC State's Drs. Tushar Ghosh and John Muth are occupied building prototypes with fibers they say "resemble human muscle and can exhibit muscle-like capabilities when electrical currents are applied." The duo sees the development as paving the way for "advancements and potential applications in robotics, smart textiles, prosthetics, and biomedicines," as they have reportedly found that polyurethane and silicone tube structures shaped like human muscle strands can be manipulated with electricity. It was noted, however, that the current models are using strands "roughly the size of a pencil lead," but the next step is to scale down the fibers and integrate them into a robotic Mr. and Mrs. Wuf.

Who knew 2007 would be such a boom year for prosthetic ankles? Surely not us, but what a year it's been, with MIT's artificial foot and ankle design we saw last month, and the ankle exoskeleton we saw the University of Michigan working on in February. Today's "ankle flavor of the week" comes to us from Arizona State University, where some doctoral students have created "SPARKy," which they expect to "revolutionize prosthetics" and plan for it to be "especially helpful for military personnel wounded in active duty." SPARKy stands for "Spring Ankle with Regenerative Kinetics," and is meant to allow amputees a more traditional walk, instead of having to compensate with other muscles and work 20 to 30 percent harder to get where they're going. The concept is pretty straight forward: "What we hope to create is a robotic tendon that actively stretches springs when the ankle rolls over the foot, thus allowing the springs to thrust or propel the artificial foot forward for the next step." There's a lightweight motor involved, but apparently this method is much less obtrusive than other such projects, which use large motors or high pressure. The robotic tendon should be ready for its first phase of demonstration in December of this year.

[Via Medgadget]

Leave it to the brilliant minds at MIT's Biomechatronics Lab to crank out yet another bionic limb, as a newfangled mechanical foot / ankle combo is apparently on the minds of more than a few of its researchers. In a recent patent application, the team describes an "artificial foot and ankle joint" consisting of a "leaf spring foot member," flexible elastic ankle, and an actuator motor that applies force to the ankle. Aside from sporting a fairly intelligent system to improving one's gait, it also boasts a built-in safety feature that prevents foot rotation beyond a specified angle, and the internal sensors can also activate the motors at different intervals depending on the surface in which one is walking. The prosthetic feet join a horde of other bionic limbs and appendages meant to make life as an amputee a fair bit easier, and as terrific as this here invention sounds, we're betting the Olympic committee dashes your hopes of illegally obliterating a few running records by barring these from basic competitions.

[Via NewScientistTech]

We've been hearing rumblings of inventor extraordinaire Dean Kamen's latest project: building a next-gen robotic prosthesis for soldiers wounded in the war. Details are still light, but apparently initial prototypes have been fabbed, and at TED Dean showed off an early video of the arm in action, performing such precise actions as picking up a pen and scratching a nose. Apparently it weighs six pounds, but we're sorely lacking information on this thing right now -- like whether or not you'll be able to install gyro-wheels and balance yourself -- so watch out for what some are hoping will be the new Cadillac of limb prosthetics in the coming months.