Many patients abandon prosthetics. These researchers are trying to reverse this trend. And it all started way back…
O robotic arm it’s called E-Redi. He was raised in Mexico, at the University of Guadalajara; You can control different hand movements with one single muscle sensor.
Many patients abandon prosthetics. These Mexican researchers are trying to reverse that trend with this innovation.
“We explain it like this: it is an arm that can be used by anyone missing a limbwhether amputated or with congenital malformations”, explains the project director, Erick Guzmán.
Uses muscle signals detected in the prosthesis fitting to control movement; Future versions may combine muscle activity with voice commands.
One of the priorities is accelerate adaptation to the prosthesis.
And it all started because Jorge Velazco, mechanical designer responsible for E-Redi, fulfilled a childhood promise to Alberto Orozco, the first person to test the prototype.
Alberto has meromelia, a rare congenital condition that causes the partial absence of a limb.
Context: they met at a summer course, when the engineer was 10 years old and the patient was 13 years old. “He asked me: what happened to your arm? And jokingly I told him that a shark ate my arm and after a while I told him the truth.”
On the other side, the designer recalls: “We reached a stage where we saw films like Star Wars or Robocop. Films with this mechanical and modern side. And there was a moment when, perhaps jokingly, We said that one day I would make him an arm and that he would have his bionic arm”.
And it did. It’s your thesis at university.
