Revolutionary prosthetic arm allows veterans to regain movement
August 08, 2017
A new line of prosthetics developed by the Pentagon could soon change the lives of former service members who have lost their limbs on the battlefield. Two army veterans recently tested prosthetic arms at a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in New York.
The prosthetics are called LUKE, which stands for Life Under Kinetic Evolution. They are a nod to Star Wars character Luke Skywalker.
The LUKE limb comprises 10 powered joints and at least four different grips that enable the user to pick up items as fragile as eggs. The shoulder can rotate, wrist can turn, and the fingers can bend and flex. Each motion is controlled with the user’s feet, which have small sensors that allow the prosthetic arm to function.
During a demonstration at the VA New York Harbor Health Care System, veterans Fred Downs and Artie McAuley showed off the range of movement that LUKE allowed. Downs peeled a banana using his prosthetic hand. He had his left arm amputated below the elbow due to a Vietnam War injury, while McCauley lost the same limb in a car accident. “These may seem like very simple, routine things, but to someone who can’t do it, to be able to be given this function, it’s like magic,” said Downs.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developed the technology in association with DEKA Research & Development Corporation. Inventor Dean Kamen said LUKE was created as part of a $100 million effort “to revolutionize prosthetics.”
“Up to this point, design in prosthetic arms has been limited to incremental changes,” he said last year. “We developed the LUKE arm to change the game for amputees — creating an innovative, integrated system that offers greater functionality and independence to our wounded warriors and other amputees.”