As the Boston Marathon is set to get underway Monday, the Boston Globe has an article on how MIT scientists were able to get Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a victim of last year's finish-line bombing, back on the dance floor.
Haslet-Davis, a professional ballroom dancer whose left leg was partially amputated after the bombing took to the dance floor at TED2014 in Vancouver last month, as I noted here.
Writing in the Globe, Michael B. Farrell notes that Haslet-Davis can dance again because of a customized bionic ankle manufactured by BiOM, a robotics company founded by Hugh Herr of the MIT Media Lab. A team at MIT, led by Herr, spent the better part of a year designing the ankle.
Farrell describes it as “a sophisticated computerized machine filled with microprocessors and sensors that are smart enough to mimic the natural functions of muscle and tendon.”
According to BiOM, “Herr's lab launched a 200-day research period to study the dynamics of dance. They studied how dancers move and what forces power each step.” The BiOM T2 System, the company said, can emulate the work of the muscles and tendons lost to amputation. “The device provides muscle power. The team re-programmed the BiOM T2 to respond to…to perform…the fundamentals of dance.”
The company notes that the T2 offers bionic propulsion as well as personal bionics tuning. The former provides normal ankle stiffness and power during the stance phase of walking via programmable control of ankle spring stiffness. During the late-stance phase of walking, the T2 provides programmable control of torque and power (provided by an electric motor) to emulate the missing calf muscles of the ankle joint.
For personal bionics tuning, a prosthetist uses a Bluetooth-enabled tablet computer to adjust the T2 system to ensure that a patient's gate falls within biological norms.
Haslet-Davis's prosthetic ankle required adaptation to move beyond the basics of walking. As Farrell notes in the Globe, “The ankle in Haslet-Davis's prosthetic was programmed in particular to respond to the many varied movements of dance. It stiffens up when the dancer needs a firmer stance or provides additional torque for forward thrust.”
Microprocessors, sensors get bombing victim back on the dance floor
The Boston Globe has an article on how MIT scientists got Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a victim of last year's Boston Marathon bombing, back on the dance floor.
As the Boston Marathon is set to get underway Monday, the Boston Globe has an article on how MIT scientists were able to get Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a victim of last year's finish-line bombing, back on the dance floor.
Haslet-Davis, a professional ballroom dancer whose left leg was partially amputated after the bombing took to the dance floor at TED2014 in Vancouver last month, as I noted here.
Writing in the Globe, Michael B. Farrell notes that Haslet-Davis can dance again because of a customized bionic ankle manufactured by BiOM, a robotics company founded by Hugh Herr of the MIT Media Lab. A team at MIT, led by Herr, spent the better part of a year designing the ankle.
Farrell describes it as “a sophisticated computerized machine filled with microprocessors and sensors that are smart enough to mimic the natural functions of muscle and tendon.”
According to BiOM, “Herr's lab launched a 200-day research period to study the dynamics of dance. They studied how dancers move and what forces power each step.” The BiOM T2 System, the company said, can emulate the work of the muscles and tendons lost to amputation. “The device provides muscle power. The team re-programmed the BiOM T2 to respond to…to perform…the fundamentals of dance.”
The company notes that the T2 offers bionic propulsion as well as personal bionics tuning. The former provides normal ankle stiffness and power during the stance phase of walking via programmable control of ankle spring stiffness. During the late-stance phase of walking, the T2 provides programmable control of torque and power (provided by an electric motor) to emulate the missing calf muscles of the ankle joint.
For personal bionics tuning, a prosthetist uses a Bluetooth-enabled tablet computer to adjust the T2 system to ensure that a patient's gate falls within biological norms.
Haslet-Davis's prosthetic ankle required adaptation to move beyond the basics of walking. As Farrell notes in the Globe, “The ankle in Haslet-Davis's prosthetic was programmed in particular to respond to the many varied movements of dance. It stiffens up when the dancer needs a firmer stance or provides additional torque for forward thrust.”
As the Boston Marathon is set to get underway Monday, the Boston Globe has an article on how MIT scientists were able to get Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a victim of last year's finish-line bombing, back on the dance floor.
Haslet-Davis, a professional ballroom dancer whose left leg was partially amputated after the bombing took to the dance floor at TED2014 in Vancouver last month, as I noted here.
Writing in the Globe, Michael B. Farrell notes that Haslet-Davis can dance again because of a customized bionic ankle manufactured by BiOM, a robotics company founded by Hugh Herr of the MIT Media Lab. A team at MIT, led by Herr, spent the better part of a year designing the ankle.
Farrell describes it as “a sophisticated computerized machine filled with microprocessors and sensors that are smart enough to mimic the natural functions of muscle and tendon.”
According to BiOM, “Herr's lab launched a 200-day research period to study the dynamics of dance. They studied how dancers move and what forces power each step.” The BiOM T2 System, the company said, can emulate the work of the muscles and tendons lost to amputation. “The device provides muscle power. The team re-programmed the BiOM T2 to respond to…to perform…the fundamentals of dance.”
The company notes that the T2 offers bionic propulsion as well as personal bionics tuning. The former provides normal ankle stiffness and power during the stance phase of walking via programmable control of ankle spring stiffness. During the late-stance phase of walking, the T2 provides programmable control of torque and power (provided by an electric motor) to emulate the missing calf muscles of the ankle joint.
For personal bionics tuning, a prosthetist uses a Bluetooth-enabled tablet computer to adjust the T2 system to ensure that a patient's gate falls within biological norms.
Haslet-Davis's prosthetic ankle required adaptation to move beyond the basics of walking. As Farrell notes in the Globe, “The ankle in Haslet-Davis's prosthetic was programmed in particular to respond to the many varied movements of dance. It stiffens up when the dancer needs a firmer stance or provides additional torque for forward thrust.”