WATCH: Double amputee given thought-controlled robotic arms

Published December 18, 2014 6:54pm

A man who had both his arms amputated following an accident may finally have hope of regaining the use of his body parts—using just his thoughts to operate two artificial arms.

More importantly, Les Baugh of Colorado made history by being the first bilateral shoulder-level amputee to simultaneously control two modular prosthetic limbs, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory said.

"It's a relatively new surgical procedure that reassigns nerves that once controlled the arm and the hand. By reassigning existing nerves, we can make it possible for people who have had upper-arm amputations to control their prosthetic devices by merely thinking about the action they want to perform," said John Hopkins Trauma Surgeon Albert Chi.

Baugh lost both arms in an electrical accident 40 years ago. He underwent a "targeted muscle reinnervation" at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

After the surgery, he managed to operate the limbs with mere thought, and could perform tasks after a brief training.

"I just went into a whole different world," Baugh said after managing to move objects, including an empty cup from a counter-shelf height to a higher shelf.

When he visited the Laboratory for training on the use of the modular prosthetic limbs, Baugh first worked on the pattern recognition system.

"We use pattern recognition algorithms to identify individual muscles that are contracting, how well they communicate with each other, and their amplitude and frequency," Chi said.

He said the information is translated into actual movements within a prosthetic.

After that, Baugh was fitted for a custom socket for his torso and shoulders to support the prosthetic limbs and facilitate the neurological connections.

They then worked with the system through a Virtual Integration Environment (VIE).

Floored

The JHU Applied Physics Laboratory's Courtney Moran said the research team was astonished over Baugh's achievement.

"We expected him to exceed performance compared to what he might achieve with conventional systems, but the speed with which he learned motions and the number of motions he was able to control in such a short period of time was far beyond expectation," she said.

But she said what was really amazing "was his ability to control a combination of motions across both arms at the same time."

"This was a first for simultaneous bimanual control," she said.

On the other hand, principal investigator Michael McLoughlin said this is just the start. He said the next step is to send Baugh home with a pair of limb systems that could integrate with his everyday life.

"I think we are just getting started. It's like the early days of the Internet. There is just a tremendous amount of potential ahead of us, and we've just started down this road. And I think the next five to 10 years are going to bring phenomenal advancement," he said. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News

Tags: cyborg, robot, prosthetics, artificiallimbs