Creating Robotic Limbs

Amazing things are being done in the field of robotics. And some of that work holds promise for people with reduced mobility, including soldiers injured on the battlefield.

At the University of Washington, researchers have created a lifelike robotic hand. Each bone was modeled on a human bone, and seven motors represent the muscles in the hand. When people eventually attach the prosthetic to their arm, the idea is that the same signals they once used to move a biological hand would work to control the electronic replica.

Word of Mouth producer Avishay Artsy recently spoke with Yoky Matsuoka, the director of the neurobotics laboratory at the University of Washington, and asked her how she became interested in creating robotic limbs.

Watch a video of Yoky Matsuoka discussing how brain signals can control prosthetic limbs, and other advances in the hybrid field of neuroscience and robotics. The presentation was given at the 2008 New Yorker Conference "Stories from the Near Future."