'Solar-powered skin' could restore feeling to amputees

Graphene proves an ideal material for helping prosthetic limbs generate their own energy. 

|
University of Glasgow/Reuters
Ravinder Dahiya of the University of Glasgow’s School of Engineering poses with the prosthetic hand developed by his team at Glasgow University, Scotland, on March 11, 2017.

A new development promises a future with more advanced artificial limbs for people and robots alike.

A team of engineers led by University of Glasgow engineer Ravinder Dahiya has improved upon previous designs for synthetic skin, capable of a sense of touch, by taking advantage of the characteristics of graphene. The upgraded skin incorporates solar cells to power itself, and the installation of onboard batters could someday lead to the development of completely self-sufficient prosthetics.

Graphene, a so-called wonder material whose isolation won the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics, makes the magic happen. A more exotic form of the humble pencil filling, graphite, graphene exhibits super strength despite measuring just one atom thick. It’s also a fantastic conductor of electricity, and is nearly completely transparent to visible light, two features that make it well-suited to collecting solar power.

Using graphene, Dahiya’s team has succeeded in building solar cells into the skin of a prosthetic limb for the first time, and they’re more than able to cover the minuscule 20 nanowatts per square centimeter required to power the skin, according to a press release.

Skin, if viewed as a sensor, is a very complicated one, constantly sending information about temperature as well as pressure and texture from all over the body, Dahiya explains.

Recreating those functions in an artificial arm or leg isn’t easy, but Dahiya thinks his team is well on their way.

“My colleagues and I have already made significant steps in creating prosthetic prototypes which integrate synthetic skin and are capable of making very sensitive pressure measurements. Those measurements mean the prosthetic hand is capable of performing challenging tasks like properly gripping soft materials, which other prosthetics can struggle with.”

And now thanks to graphene, that skin doesn’t need batteries, or routine charging.

Robots could benefit from smarter limbs, too.

“Skin capable of touch sensitivity also opens the possibility of creating robots capable of making better decisions about human safety,” Dahiya says in the press release. “A robot working on a construction line, for example, is much less likely to accidentally injure a human if it can feel that a person has unexpectedly entered their area of movement and stop before an injury can occur.”

Even though the prosthetic skin doesn’t need batteries, future models might use them to store the overflow-power generated by the solar cells."This could allow the creation of an entirely energy-autonomous prosthetic limb," Dahiya said.

This advancement is the latest in a field that some say is making “exponential” progress. For 20-year-olds being fitted for artificial limbs now, says director of Massachusetts Institute of Techonology’s Biomechatronics group Hugh Herr, "by the time they are 40, the bionic legs we have in society will be extraordinary and will make today's limbs look prehistoric." Dr. Herr is also a double amputee and an avid mountain climber.

And as the technology gets more advanced, prices come down, too. Now, a number of groups help amputees use 3-D printers to create prosthetics for as little as $50, affordable enough to let parents buy multiple sizes for growing children, just like pairs of shoes.

Dahiya’s group supports work in this area as well, he explains.

“We are also using innovative 3-D printing strategies to build more affordable sensitive prosthetic limbs, including the formation of a very active student club called ‘Helping Hands.’”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Solar-powered skin' could restore feeling to amputees
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2017/0323/Solar-powered-skin-could-restore-feeling-to-amputees
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe