Robert W. Mann's "Boston Arm"

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PRESENTER: In the Newman lab, Professor Neville Hogan and his students are developing the next generation of cybernetic controllers for artificial limbs. The true measure of effectiveness for a prosthesis control scheme is the amputees performance. To ensure the participation of amputees in the research, a facility has been developed for emulating in hardware any prosthesis design.

This facility consists of a high performance artificial elbow that is worn by an amputee, who controls it via the digital computer. The computer can be programmed to determine the way the prosthesis responds to the amputee's commands. This provides a powerful vehicle for studying prosthesis. Proposed designs may be evaluated in the side-by-side comparison simply by reprogramming the computer.