Researchers Test Mind-Controlled Robotic Prosthetic

The New York Times Technology section has been featuring a video series called “Robotica,” [1] a collection of videos documenting how robotics are going to change our lives.

The most recent episode [2] from May 20 is about a team of engineers from the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University and their project, which focuses on a “next-generation prosthetic:” a multi-jointed robotic arm capable of being controlled by the human mind.

Les Baugh, the test subject for the new limb, lost both of his arms at the shoulder after an electrical accident as a teenager. He underwent surgery at Johns Hopkins to have the leftover nerves in his arm rewired in order to have the signal from his brain transmitted to the machine.

You can watch Les test out the prosthetic below.