The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has made the creation of upper-limb prosthesis, artificial arms and hands that allow for sensory feedback a top priority--it's backing 8 research organizations to do so.
The move comes after President Obama focused on DARPA's efforts in advanced prosthetics during his 2015 State of the Union address last month, highlighting the government interest in "creating revolutionary prosthetics, so that a veteran who gave his arms for his country can play catch with his kids again."
Late last year, Swedish researchers reported the first long-term use of a robotic prosthetic with implanted neuromuscular interfaces that allow for control and sensation via implanted electrodes.
 |
| Diagram showing the idea behind the HAPTIX program. Click to enlarge.--Courtesy of DARPA |
To address this field, DARPA has awarded contracts for early research in its Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program. The idea is to create a prosthetic hand that moves and provides sensation in a manner that is similar to a natural hand. Doing so is expected to also reduce or eliminate phantom limb pain, which is a problem for about 80% of amputees.
"The ultimate goal for HAPTIX is to create a device that is safe, effective and reliable enough for use in everyday activities," Doug Weber, a DARPA program manager, said in a statement. "DARPA is partnering with scientists at the Food and Drug Administration to help develop standards for verifying safety and quantifying benefits of this new class of advanced technologies."
After initially evaluating the potential of various technical approaches, DARPA expects to move on to a second phase in which a full test system is created that's sufficient to undergo FDA review. The agency plans to start at-home trials of an FDA-approved system within four years.
Technologies are expected to build upon advanced neural-interface technologies being developed through DARPA's Reliable Neural-Interface Technology (RE-NET) program. DARPA expects the program will involve commercial electrode and lead technology, as well as to test advanced microelectrode array and nerve cuff electrode technologies that have been developed in the last 20 years through research supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs and DARPA.
DARPA is working with research teams led by 8 institutions: Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Clinic, Draper Laboratory, Nerves Inc., Ripple, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Utah and the University of Florida.
The agency is providing prosthetics simulation software to test the researcher's designs. It came out of DARPA's 2013 Virtual Robotics Challenge to create semi-autonomous robots that could aid in emergency response efforts.
 |
| Case Western is developing a prosthetic system that allows sensation.--Courtesy of Case Western Reserve University |
The researchers led by Case Western Reserve University expect to get about $4.4 million from DARPA under this program to fund researchers at institutions around the country on various aspects of the problem. Its goal is to create a mobile prosthetic system that offers sensations.
If the team meets its milestones over about the next 18 months, it becomes eligible for another almost $16 million in DARPA funding.
Test subjects were able to use the system to pick cherries or grapes from their stems, blindfolded and without crushing them.
The researchers plan to explore novel approaches to signaling the nerves; at the University of Chicago, they will focus on an attempt to more closely mimic the signals created by different types of natural sensations.
Medtronic ($MDT) and Ardem Medical are expected to refine the existing cuffs to improve the clarity of signals and sensations, the recruitment of nerves and the control of the prosthetic hand. They will also test the system on additional patients.
Ultimately, the aim is to have an iPod-sized device that receives input, converts it to signals and communicates wirelessly with system components. A charger is expected to be the only other external piece of hardware. The technology is also expected to have implications for lower limb prostheses, making users more sure-footed and aware of their surroundings.
"We'd soon like to have a system working outside the lab, so that amputees can touch and feel things out in the community where they live," Dustin Tyler, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve and leader of the project, said in a statement. "By the end of five years, we want to have a product people can take home and use daily."
- here are releases from DARPA, Case Western Reserve University and the NIH