‘Stumbling Device’ Helps Improve Prosthetic Legs

Researchers are addressing the tendency to stumble in lower-body prosthetics by understanding the way people with two legs catch themselves. They accomplished this by covering test...

Engineers Develop More Stable, Efficient Prosthetic Foot

Engineers have developed a more stable prosthetic leg — and a better way of designing them — that could make challenging terrain more manageable for people who have lost a lower...

Rehab Device Works with All Joints of Lower Limbs

South Ural State University
Chelyabinsk, Russia
www.susu.ru/en

Anew device developed at South Ural State University is unlike analogous devices in that it involves all joints of a...

Device Assesses and Monitors Lymphedema Noninvasively

Lymphedema is the swelling that generally occurs in the arms or legs caused by the removal of or damage to lymph nodes as a part of cancer treatment. Treating it at the earliest possible...

Using Optical 3D Scanning to Measure the Human Body

The latest advances in 3D technologies are revolutionizing the ability to measure the human body, and this is having a tremendous impact on the healthcare industry and in the development of...

Dual Therapy Improves Stroke Recovery

Paralysis of an arm and/or leg is one of the most common effects of a stroke. But thanks to new research, stroke victims may soon be able to recover greater use of their paralyzed limbs. The...

Stretchable Electronics a ‘Game Changer’ for Stroke Recovery Treatment

A groundbreaking new wearable device designed to be worn on the throat could be a game changer in the field of stroke rehabilitation.

8 Key Decisions to Make When Designing Motor Drives

Engineers designing their own motor drives must accomplish many different tasks, from selecting a microcontroller to choosing the right connectors and power supply for mechanical...

Bionic Wheelchair Breaks New Barriers

People confined to a wheelchair are still confronted with insurmountable obstacles in everyday life — even in today’s more wheelchair-accessible society. There are often no elevators in a building...

Thin Film Force Sensors: Changing the Medical Device Design Game

Data drives results. Today, medical devices give feedback and insight like never before. Advances in engineering medical devices has led to smarter devices, improved...

Keeping Prosthetic Legs from Tripping

While trips and stumbles leading to falls can be common for amputees using leg prosthetics, a new robotic leg prosthesis being developed at Carnegie Mellon University promises to help users recover their...

Regaining Leg Control with Spinal Stimulation

According to a new NIH-funded study, five men with complete motor paralysis were able to voluntarily generate steplike movements using a new technology that non-invasively delivers electrical...

Microprocessor-Controlled Prostheses Are a Step in the Right Direction

It’s not always easy to walk in someone else’s shoes. It’s even more difficult if those shoes belong to a person with an artificial leg. However, that’s exactly...

Using Robot Control Theory to Improve Prosthetics

A University of Texas at Dallas professor applied robot control theory to enable powered prosthetics to dynamically respond to the wearer’s environment and help amputees walk. As reported...

Making Lower Limb Prosthetics More Comfortable

Diabetes is the leading cause of limb loss, accounting for more than 65,000 amputations a year nationwide. In addition, there were more than 1,500 major limb amputations from US battle injuries...

Hydraulic Prosthetic Knee Joints Provide More Natural Mobility for Patients

For patients who have lost a leg, regaining mobility is a top priority. However, development of more true-to-nature prosthetic limbs and joints has come an amazingly...

Bio-Inspired Robotic Rehabilitation Device

A soft, wearable device that mimics the muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the lower leg could aid in the rehabilitation of patients with foot-ankle disorders such as drop foot, said Yong-Lae Park,...

Anklebot: A Robotic Walking Coach

The ankle is a complex joint, supported by muscle, tendon, and bones, and maintaining stability and locomotion. Characterizing how it works, however, is not so straightforward says a group of researchers...

First Thought-Controlled Bionic Leg Revealed

A team of researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) has revealed clinical applications for the world’s first thought-controlled bionic leg—a significant milestone for...

R&D Roundup: November 2013

First Thought-Controlled Bionic Leg Revealed

A team of researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago has revealed clinical applications for the world’s first thought-controlled bionic vleg—a...

Robotic Exoskeleton Vastly Improves Quality of Life

Worldwide an estimated 185 million people use a wheelchair daily. A company based in Auckland, New Zealand, has developed an innovative robotic technology that helps people with mobility...

Glass Scaffolds for Bone Implants

Engineers at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, have developed a glass-based scaffold that could one day be used as an implant to repair injured bones in the arms, legs, and other...

Treatment for Space Atrophy Finding Application on Earth

The lack of gravity in space reduces the mechanical loading seen by both the muscles and bones of the body, especially those related to standing and moving. The body adapts to reduced...

R&D Roundup: September 2013

Glass Scaffolds for Bone Implants

Engineers at Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, have developed a glass-based scaffold that could one day be used as an implant to repair injured...

Sensory Vibrations Get Stroke Victims Moving

Currently, in the United States alone, there are more than 10 million people whose movement is profoundly limited by diseases of and injuries to the brain and spinal cord. About half of these...

Implantable Robotic Arm Controlled by Thought

Chalmers University of Technology,
Gothenburg, Sweden
www.chalmers.se/en/pages/default.aspx

A team of researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, say...