Biomechatronics Essay -- physics biomechatronic

When Luke Skywalkers hatful was sliced off by Darth Vader in the trilogy Star Wars, he received a sassy prosthetic hand which was fully functional in use and appearance.Today, this science fiction is decent reality as an exciting new technology called Biomechatronics is promising new advances in the scope of prosthetics. As the name implies, biomechatronics merges man with machine. It is an interdisciplinary field including biology, neuroscience and physics. Biomechatronic scientists create devices that interact with human muscle, bone and the nervous systems with the goal of assisting or enhancing human motor control that can be lost or impaired by trauma, disease, or birth defects.Today there is a great need in advances in the field of prosthetics. This demand is being generated in large measure by wounded veterans needing prosthetics. While new advances in body armor is saving lives, it is also leading to many a(prenominal) limb injuries in soldiers who would not have usual ly survived. In the foremost two years of the Iraq war, over 200 soldiers lost limbs.While health care is still servicing wooden hands designed in the World War I era, many patients are unsatisfied with the moved(p) movements, aesthetics, weight and lack of motion in these outdated prosthetics. Colonel Geoffrey Ling, a chopine manager for the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) who is overseeing a send off to improve prosthetics says, The best hand prosthetic one can fit is a hook, right out of Peter Pan. Its heavy, its clumsy and cosmetically, its just horrid.That is wherefore DARPA along with 70 million dollars to John Hopkins Applied Physics laboratory are spearheading the work. The projects goals are lofty APL hopes to design an arm ... ...zine. (2007) On-line.http//www.baltimoremag.comFreudenrich, Craig Ph.D.. How Biomechatronics works. (2007) On-line. http//www.howstuffworks.com/biomechatronics.htmSu, Y. Fisher, M.H. Wolczowski, A. Bell, G.D. Burn, D. Gao , R. Basics of MRI-I. 19 May 2005 Towards an EMG Controlled Prosthetic Hand Using a 3D Electromagnetic Positioning System Instrument and Measurement vol. 1, p. 261-266.Guinnessy, Paul. Sept 2006. DARPA joins industry, academia to launch better prosthetic arms Physics Today p. 24-25.Unknown author. (2007) On-line. Nerve cells. http//www.cidpusa.org/physiology.htmHerr, Hugh Ph. D. washrag House/VA Conference /Emerging Technologies in Support of the New granting immunity InitiativePromoting Opportunities for People with Disabilities October 13-14, 2004. (2007) On-line. http//www.rehab.research.va.gov/whc2004/day1/pan-herr.html