Health Tech : New Bionic Leg thinks and moves like a Real one
Traditional prosthetic lims are heavy and uncomfortable to the user, but thats going to change real soon. This new leg however acts and feels like a real limb, thanks to recent advances in technology. The leg was designed and developed at Vanderbilt University the leg uses both a powered knee and powered ankle.
It also uses an advanced sensor suite to monitor the leg’s motion, momentum and position, feeding that data into processors that predict the user’s intention and react accordingly.
If it senses the user stumbling, the leg automatically lifts the foot clear of the obstacle before replanting in on the ground.
The leg also uses a new type of battery which runs 30 to 40% lighter than usual and can work for 3 days without requiring a recharge.
With our latest model, we have validated our hypothesis that the right technology was available to make a lower-limb prosthetic with powered knee and ankle joints,Our device illustrates the progress we are making at integrating man and machine.”
-Michael Goldfarb, Vanderbilt Center for Intelligent Mechatronics director
