Prosthetic Arms
By: Ryan McDonough
History of Prosthetic Arms
Before this mainly prosthetic hands were made
out of iron
• But in 1508 a knight had two hands replace his
right arm and this was one of the first jointed
prosthetics in history. Its used springs and
leather straps
• During the Civil War was when prosthetics
started to take off in America because there
were over 30,000 amputees.
History Continued
• In World War II the government started
funding engineering programs at universities
so that soldiers with amputations would have
better technology to work with.
• Around the 1960’s the united states
developed the first movable prosthetic arm
• Today developing arms that can read brain
signals.
The Problem its Solving
• Many amputation victims have a hard time going about
their daily lives.
• Hard for them to complete the simplest of tasks
• The prosthetic arm will help them complete these
simple tasks
• With the prosthetic arms being better developed they
will be able to do tasks as if they weren't even missing
their arm.
• Makes people feel as though they are capable of doing
things even though they are missing an arm
• Patients can now do things that people with arms
would be able to do.
Top of the Line Prosthetic Arms
• Today engineers must first use a process called
targeted muscle reinnervation.
• This process requires doctors to take nerves from
the spot where the arm was amputated and
reattach it to nerves in the chest.
• Electrodes are then placed on the chest to make
it possible for the person to move the arm with
their brain signals
• The signals pass from the brain, into the chest
and into the arm making it move in the direction
the patient wants
Continued
• These new prosthetic arms are able to preform ten different hand, wrist,
and elbow
• There were tests preformed where people with prosthetic arms did the
same tests as people with real arms, the patients with fake arms were
able to preform the tasks a tiny bit slower then people with real arms.
• Before this prosthetic arm people were very limited with what they could
do with it.
• Also before this arm it was very difficult to find a way to attach the arm to
the body while making it comfortable for the patient
• Now they have harness that attaches the arm to the person that goes
along your chest around your body and attaches on your back.
• More finger like
• By doing this the arm uses the rest of the body to move things instead of
just the stump of the arm making it able to lift a lot more weight
Videos
• http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/health/
research/11arm.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&e
xprod=permalink&adxnnlx=1302373454Tq6po7U0G/mBl3Fmq6rSJw
How Engineers Fit Into This
• Biomedical
– need to know what part of the brain would be used to
send those signal to the arm
– Where to place the electrodes on your body
– How much strain it would put on your body
• Mechanical
– Have to design how the arm moves
– Figure out how much weight could be put onto the
machine/ motor
• Electrical
– Need to set up all the wiring for the arms
Limitations
-
Weight
Movement
Not easy to operate for everyone
Not enough funding
Future
•
•
•
•
Prosthetic arms eventually having feeling
Making it easier for people to move with them
Make them out of a lighter material
Government should put more money into this
process
• Videogames using prosthetic arms as
controllers
Sources
•
Singer, Emily. "A Prosthetic Arm That Acts Like a Real One - Technology
Review." Technology Review: The Authority on the Future of Technology. 2 Feb.
2007. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/18134/?a=f>.
•
"History of Prosthetic Devices." Www.unc.edu. Web. 9 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.unc.edu/~mbritt/Prosthetics%20History%20Webpage%20%20Phys24.html>.
•
Belluck, Pam. "In a New Procedure, Artificial Arm Listens to
Brain." Www.nytimes.com. New York Times, 10 Feb. 2009. Web. 9 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/health/research/11arm.html?adxnnl=1&ex
prod=permalink&adxnnlx=1302373454-Tq6po7U0G/mBl3Fmq6rSJw>.
•
Smith, Kevin. "Open Access for Hardware?" Duke University Libraries Blogs. 24
Oct. 2009. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.
<http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2009/10/24/open-access-forhardware/>.
•
2008, Sarah Adee / February. "Reengineering the Prosthetic-Arm Socket IEEE Spectrum." IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News.
Feb. 2008. Web. 11 Apr. 2011.
<http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/reengineering-the-prostheticarmsocket>.