The field of robotics has been of growing interest for many decades now, however the application of robotics to biomedical uses is a fairly new relationship. Previously, robots have been used to increase the success rate of surgeries, make medical procedures less invasive, and to aid in patient communication. In the medical field, doctors and patients all rely on robots to be accurate and precise everyday.

Now, there’s a new robot in town. This robotic arm is named Airic’s_arm and is made of 30 artificial muscles, several artificial bones that mock human structure, 32 pressure sensors and 6 length sensors. Meet Airic’s_arm:

Airic’s_arm possesses fine and gross motor skills which include writing and lifting a dumbbell. Its artificial fluidic muscles are filled with air to control muscle force and length. These muscles have previously been used in the field of robotics and are made from elastomer reinforced with aramide fibers. When the muscles are contracted, they don’t need anymore energy; hence, the arm could hold something up for an indefinite amount of time. This is achieved by 72 tiny proportional valves that work togther with all the sensors. Airic’s_arm’s artificial bones are extremely unique because they were designed on a computer and engineered in by original process. The bones were grown in a 3-D polyamide structure utilizing lasers to sinter the material.

Watch a video of Airic’s_arm in action, courtesy of the company that created this robot, Festo.

More Information on Airics_arm.

-Amy

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 4:15 pm and is filed under Biomedical Electronics, Tissue Engineering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.