14 DAY TRIAL // According to a paper published in the November 6 issue of the esteemed journal Science Translational Medicine, advanced robotics can now be used to create powerful robotic arms and legs that have the same look and feel as limbs that have been severed due to accidents or disease.
The paper was published by investigators with the Center for Intelligent Mechatronics at the Vanderbilt University, led by H. Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering Michael Goldfarb, EurekAlert reports.
The expert and his team have been studying and improving lower-limb prosthetics for the better part of the last decade. He says that items like lithium-ion batteries, brushless electric motors, miniaturized sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, and low-power computer chips are all components that can be used for the new generation of prosthetic limbs.
What is even more important is the size of these devices, which is now small enough to be carried around by a regular user every day. Goldfarb says that there is no need for amputees to use outdated prosthetics anymore, since we now have the means to create new types of robotic limbs.