Advances in Prosthetic Arms

From NPR's All Things Considered, Researchers Pursue Truly Functional Prosthetic Arm. Listen to the whole segment.

. . . In Iraq and Afghanistan, advances in body armor and battlefield medical treatment mean more soldiers are surviving their wounds. . . .

But more of those survivors are amputees, which has highlighted a somewhat lagging technology: prosthetic limbs, especially arms.

Now, an international team of engineers and scientists is hoping to revolutionize prosthetic-arm technology. The ultimate goal is to build a strong, lightweight arm activated by neural impulses, which means it is controlled by an amputee's thoughts.

Funded by the U.S. DefenseDepartment's Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, the project — with a price tag of about $30 million — is a collaborative effort between more than 30 labs, universities and private companies. . . .