Robotic prosthetics have come a long, long way in a surprisingly brief period of time. And it can be a little shocking just how fast those advances are, but in a good way, especially when it gives those limbs back to a man who’s had no arms for forty years.
Courtesy of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Les Baugh had two arms for the first time in decades. The devices were the lab’s own Modular Prosthetic Limbs, or MPL. Baugh had to go through surgery that essentially rerouted some of his nerves to give the limbs signals to detect. Then he had to go through training so that the limbs would recognize specific patterns and tie them to specific motions.
But, as you can see, once they had those signals, it was as if they were a part of him. The next step? Sending Baugh home with prototypes so he can incorporate them into his everyday life. We won’t be seeing these on the market for a while, as they’re expensive and need FDA approval. But a better life for those injured is just around the corner.