The artificial arm controls with the world's most advanced thinking

Losing people will undergo surgery to connect an artificial titanium part with their bones.

In the late 19th century, the first complex prosthetics were developed by Americans for war invalids after the American Civil War. Over a century of the development of science and technology, from the rigid mechanical arms of Samuel Decker in 1865, engineers and scientists at Johns Hopkins University were able to create an arm Modern imitation more than ever: a robotic arm helps the wearer control it with thought.

The robot arm is controlled by the most advanced thinking today.

Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) , temporarily translated as sophisticated prosthetics, has the ability to perform almost all movements of the human arm. They are not really new, however, to talk about the most modern MPL now, it is being developed at John Hopkins University, USA.

The surgeons here have spent many years researching to develop an extremely simple MPL system for patients. They only need a single surgery and a simple extension device to regain the ability of the lost arm.

This process is called "osseointegration" , roughly translated as integrated bone . Losing people will undergo surgery to connect an artificial titanium part with their bones. This is the most important component in prosthetics, they are called "sockets". The surgery will closely connect it to the patient's bone marrow allowing the body to adapt after a few weeks.

"Our achievements have eliminated one of the biggest flaws in the development of fake limbs with these sockets," said McLoughlin, chief engineer in the research project.

Samuel Decker's arm in 1865 could be called the "grandfather" of modern robotic prostheses.

The problem with developing "sockets" is that they must be integrated as accurately as possible with the patient's limbs. Otherwise, they may have pain, ulcers or blisters caused by artificial titanium parts through soft tissues.
When the surgery process is evaluated as successful, the person who lost the limb can connect "socket" to the extended robot arm section. It can be freely disassembled to bring comfort to patients in each case.

The main mechanism of controlling the robotic arm with thoughts is based on broken motor nerves. Through surgery, they will be adjusted to reconnect with prostheses, allowing it to respond to signals sent from the brain. This system has been developed so advanced that users can control complex activities from wrist to finger.

Matheny, an unfortunate man who lost his arm in 2008 because of cancer, was the first to test this advanced prosthetic arm. He performed surgery on titanium parts at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Earlier, Matheny also tested many different prosthetic arms, but this time it was an extremely new experience with the world's most advanced arm.

"Things have returned to nature. Nothing can be difficult for me now. In the past, I couldn't reach my head and put my arms around my back. Now, suddenly all limits have disappeared , " Metheny said after the first trial of new arm control.

Matheny and the most advanced prosthetic arm today.

Remarkably, this robotic arm is just a pioneering project in a big plan made by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. All received funding from the US Department of Defense. They want to develop advanced prosthetic implants that serve wounded soldiers as well as civilians with disabilities.

In addition, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is known as the US military technology wing, is also funding similar projects. They developed artificial limbs and even artificial brain implants to restore memory, brain damage to war zone soldiers.

Back to the arm developed at Johns Hopkins University, Michael Mc Loughlin said his next major challenge and the team is to bring this technology really out of the lab."Unless all wounded soldiers and disabled elderly have access to this technology, we have not yet fulfilled our mission," he said.