A team of researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, say that they have created the world’s first implantable robotic arm controlled by thoughts.
Prosthetic leg technology has advanced rapidly in the past decade, but prosthetic arm advances have been much slower. Since the 1960s, upper limb amputees have used prostheses controlled by electrical impulses in the muscles.
In this research project, the researchers plan to implant electrodes directly onto nerves and remaining muscles, and use osseointegration, to anchor the prosthesis directly into bone. Since the electrodes are closer to the source and the body acts as protection, the bio-electric signals should become much more stable.
Osseointegration enables the electrical impulses from the nerves in the arm stump to be captured by a neural interface, sending them to the prosthesis through the titanium implant. These are then decoded by algorithms that allow the patient to control the prosthesis by using his or her thoughts. This should allow users to control the prosthesis in a more natural and intuitive way than has been previously possible.
