Sections: Current State | Future Direction | Required Efforts | Our Ideas | Bibliography
Many have lost the use of their legs due to genetic disabilities, diseases, and physical trauma caused by accidents or war, losing their locomotion, the power of moving from place to place. But, since 484 B.C., human beings have been noted to fashion and use prosthetic limbs, artificial devices made to replace the missing parts of the body, and thus regain their ability to move. In fiction, we easily recognize the wooden peg leg Captain Ahab sports in the novel Moby Dick. But now, in the 21st Century, we can do so much better.
There
are many companies designing prosthetic legs, even dividing and specializing
in one specific body part, such as prosthetic knees or prosthetic feet.
Despite the effectiveness of the current technological improvements in
assistive robotics currently, yet still many
enhancements can be created.
Improvements do not create simply create themselves. Therefore, there are certainly a number of efforts to be made that will further achievement of such goals.
We
feel that aim of prosthetic should not be narrowed only to the field of
assisting the disabled in reviving their lost mobility, yet, instead, be
attempting to aid patients into recovering the life they once had enjoyed or
give a new hope to those who have not yet experienced it. The quality of being
mobile is, "Capable of moving or of being moved readily from place to place."
We are convinced, that currently, even with the most advance mechanisms, true
mobility cannot be achieved with prosthetic limbs. Yet with progress that may
create a light, flexible, limb or joint that functions in unison with the
applicant, many physically strenuous activities may even one day be available
for the public good.
We would like to put an on-board processor into the prosthetic. This processor would be used to gather data from sensors on the surface of the prosthetic and around the levers and and motors that make it move. This data would then be used to change the direction and force applied to the levers and motors. This processor could also receive owner input via wireless remote control, such as increasing the strength of the motion. This allows the owner to add to the sensory input to the prosthetic.
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Attribution: The images on this page come from the
Otto Bock Health Care
and Endolite web sites.