Photo credit: Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

October 25, 2007
UNB Fredericton News Release: E136
Natalie Montgomery, Communication Officer (506) 453-4990

Imagine an artificial arm that looks and functions like the real thing. The University of New Brunswick’s Kevin Englehart does.

Dr. Englehart is part of a team of scientists from across North America that have developed Proto 2, a state-of-the-art myoelectric arm that has many of the features of a human arm and can move 27 different ways. This latest advancement in prosthetic limb development has earned the team a Popular Mechanics 2007 Breakthrough Award.

“This is such an exciting time in the field of prosthetics technology,” said Dr. Englehart, associate director of UNB’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering. “We’ve really come a long way in the development of artificial limbs.”

What makes the Proto 2 different from all other prosthetic arms is that it is designed to operate using not only muscles, but nerve fibers, and eventually, the brain. This will give users the ability to control the arm by thinking. Proto 2 has 80 sensors in the fingertips and palm, which will send signals back to the brain, giving users the ability to feel with the new arm.

“This project is more ambitious than anything we’ve done so far,” said Dr. Englehart. “We’ve tested Proto 2 on an amputee user and the results have been remarkable. In addition to unprecedented dexterity, the limb is more powerful, less noisy, and will be more comfortable than any other.”

UNB’s role in the four-year project is to develop pattern recognition software that is at the heart of the controller.

“The software decodes the information from muscles and nerves, extracting the intended motion of the arm and hand,” said Dr. Englehart. “The prosthesis learns the characteristics of a particular user’s biological signals, refining itself to allow the control of as many motions as possible.”

Proto 2 is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the United States, and is managed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. In addition to dramatic engineering advances, the project aims to develop robust new man-machine interfaces by implanting sensors in the body, allowing muscle, nerve and brain signals to be recorded directly. This work is on the frontier of biomedical science, and involves close partnerships with leading universities and government laboratories in the United States.

“We hope to enhance the controls, fitting, cosmetics, mechatronics, power storage and neural interfacing of the prosthetic arm,” said Dr. Englehart.

The Proto 2 project is at the half-way point, with a second generation system currently under testing.

The Popular Science Breakthrough Awards began in 2005. Other winners this year include Microsoft, Apple, and Nintendo. The 2007 Breakthrough Award winners will be featured in the November issue of Popular Mechanics magazine.

The UNB team comprises project engineers, clinical research staff and graduate students from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering.

“Kevin and the team at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering are doing remarkable work,” said Greg Kealey, vice-president (research) at UNB. “They have changed the lives of so many people and are most deserving of this recognition.”

UNB’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, located on the Fredericton campus, is a world-renowned research institutes in biomedical engineering and is one of the oldest research institutes to be solely dedicated to the field of biomedical engineering. The institute is also the region's prosthetic fitting centre where amputees are fitted with state-of-the-art intelligent artificial limbs.

The institute and its researchers have been internationally recognized for the design and development of myoelectric control systems for upper limb prostheses.

- 30 -