Brain-controlled Prosthetic Foot Developing Scientist

Illustration of patients with robotic feet (photo: dock. pexels)

JAKARTA - Scientists have developed prosthetic legs controlled by the human brain, which can make it easier for amputees to climb and down stairs. This revolutionary tool allows patients to control their prosthetics directly using the mind.

The device records signals from surgically preserved muscles, which are then monitored closely and converted into controls for robotic ankles.

In a trial involving 14 amputees, researchers from MIT found that these prosthetic legs create more natural movements, improve stability in uneven terrain, and increase speeds by 41%. Researchers hope the commercial version of these legs can be available within five years.

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, claims that their new technique allows patients to receive provocative feedback from prosthetic limbs. During the trial, researchers found that this allows patients to run as quickly as people without amputation and develop natural movements such as lifting their toe while climbing stairs.

This enhanced level of control is made possible thanks to the new surgical amputation technique piloted by the researchers. In traditional amputation, muscles that usually control the legs are wrapped around disconnected limbs to create soft bearings. However, this process breaks off the normal relationship between 'antagonistic' muscle pairs that drive and pull in the legs.

Instead, this device requires patients to undergo a new form of amputation below the knee, called the antagonist myoneural-antagonist (AMI) interface. The ends of the muscles are connected together so they can still communicate with each other in the remaining limbs.

During previous studies, Professor Hugh Herr and his colleagues discovered that signals from these remnant muscles could be used to mimic the natural movements of the legs. By recording these signals, robotic ankles know how far and how hard they are to bend and bend their legs so that patients can control their limbs naturally.

This process can be carried out during initial amputation or in later revision procedures, which can also be applied to the arm. So far, only 60 people have undergone this procedure, but researchers hope this can pave the way for more natural bionic limbs.

Lead author Hyungeun Song, a post-doctoral researcher at MIT, said: "Because of AMI's neuroprosthetic interface, we can improve those neural signals, maintain as much as we can. This is able to restore a person's neutral ability to control the full motion of the walk, with various speeds of walking, stairs, slopes, and even passing obstacles."

Critically, the study also found that patients prefer to feel that their new prosthetics are part of their bodies. Although patients receive only 20 percent of sensory feedback felt by people without amputation, they continue to develop natural walking habits as if they were biological body parts.

By allowing patients to control their limbs directly, Professor Herr hopes to achieve his goal of'rebuilding the human body'. "The approach we took was to try to connect the human brain comprehensively with electromechanicals," said Herr, quoted by MailOnline's VOI.