artificial limbs
Robots
Ossur Power Knee Prosthesis Features AI-Driven Motor
9:00AM Mark Wilson | The latest Ossur Power Knee is just a prosthesis, but it more closely resembles a robot than any artificial limb. More »
Robots
Sensopac Neural-Net Robot Hand May Be What Droids Will Shake Hands With
9:00PM Kit Eaton | Robotic hands and arms may be getting more sophisticated, but they don’t really rival what we think C3-PO would have poking out of his torso. That is until now: an European science team have been busy creating the Sensopac robotic limb, and it’s arguably the most human-like robotic limb yet. And partly that’s because its sophistication is derived from software modelled on the human cerebellum. The arm has artificial skin that can sense force and direction in detail, and its 38 motors mimic the structure of human muscles and tendons to give it a very human-like grip. More »
Science
Sprinter With Two Carbon-Fiber Feet Gets Olympics Thumbs-Up
7:30AM Gizmodo US Edition | Oscar Pistorius is a sprinter with a difference: he runs on two artificial lower legs and feet fast enough that he may qualify for the Olympics. And that’s something he can now attempt, given that the Court of Arbitration for Sport has just overturned a ruling by the International Association of Athletics that had banned him from competing against able-bodied runners. All because of the specialised carbon-fibre Cheetah Flex-Foot prosthetic feet he uses, which represented an unfair mechanical advantage maintained the IAAF. So the advanced artificial limbs, designed after the shape of a Cheetah’s hind leg, were put to the test in the lab. More »
Robots
