Italy pushes new robots: human brain control is touched

Italian scientists develop tactile robots controlled by the brain

Polo Petrozro test new artificial limbs

According to foreign media reports, the 26-year-old Italian sent Pieroolo Petruzziello unfortunately lost his left arm in a car accident, but he has successfully connected a robot, now he can control this through the brain idea Only a fake hand, and there will be a touch.

Still facing huge challenges

In a one-month trial last year, although Petruzzo only controlled a robot that was not attached to him through the brain, he felt like his arm was lost. He said: "It is the key to the problem. When you think it is your hand, your forearm, it is much easier to control it."

The biggest challenge facing scientists today is finding a way to connect the patient's nervous system to the prosthesis for many years, rather than just for a month. The Italian research team recently said at a press conference in Rome that in 2008 they transplanted the electrodes into the remaining left arm of Petruzzi. Petrozro’s left arm was broken in a car accident three years ago. The prosthesis is not transplanted to the patient's body, but only through the electrodes to get in touch with the body. A video played during the press conference showed that Petrozro was concentrating on giving instructions to the robot placed next to him.

During the one-month connection to the electrodes, he learned to twist the robot's fingers, clench, grab, and other actions. The University of Rome Biomedical is a health sciences research institute. The neuroscientist Paul Maria Rossini of the university joked: "Some gestures are not yet open because they are still relatively low-level."

Amazing test results

Maria Rossini is responsible for this research work. He said that the EU-funded project costing 2 million euros took five years to complete. During this period, the researchers completed several papers and published the top scientific journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. After Petrozlo restores health through microsurgery, the doctor implants electrodes in his remaining left arm so that he can operate the robot during the test. At the end of the trial, the robot's movement followed the 95% command that Petruzzo sent through the brain.

Petruzzro is an Italian who settled in Brazil. He said that the feedback from the robot was very accurate, which surprised him. He joked: "It feels like the real hand. They even stimulate me with a needle. You can't imagine what they did to me." The team's engineer Silvestro Mikala Micera) said that although the "LifeHand" test lasted only one month, it was the longest time that the electrode was connected to the human nervous system during such an experiment.

In a shorter duration trial between 2004 and 2005, the researchers used a pliers-shaped terminal to clamp a mechanical arm that was not technically high to the limb of the amputee. They could only use this The prosthesis does some basic movements. Experts who did not participate in the latest study said the trial was a very important step toward making a linker that could connect the nervous system to the prosthesis. But one of the big challenges they face today is the need to develop systems that can connect for years, not just one month.

Further extend the implantation time

Dustin Taylor, a professor at Case Western Reserve University and a biomedical engineer at the VA Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, said: "This is a major new advance in this area based on research in the mid-20th century. The solution is how to keep the implanted electrode for more than a month or more."

Experts around the world have developed other prostheses that are controlled by the brain. One method used in the United States is to surgically connect the shoulder nerves to the chest muscles and then learn how to use these muscles to control the bionic arms. Although this method is necessary for those who have lost their entire arm, if the rest of the limb is left, the doctor can use a less harmful method, such as the same one in Italy that uses the brain to send and receive signals. The system connects the prosthesis. Maria Rossini said: "The method we use is very natural." The patient "does not learn to use the muscles with other functions to control the prosthesis. He just concentrates on sending out the hand that he once gave his hand to the prosthesis." The same information is all there."

Experts say that scientists will have at least two to three years to carry out the next test. First, they must solve how the electrodes, which are only as thin as hair, last longer. Klaus Hoffman, a biomedical expert at the Fraunhofer Applied Research Promotion Association (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft), who developed the electrode, said the results of the trial were very encouraging, from Petruz The electrode removed from the broken limb showed no signs of damage and it seemed to last longer.

In addition, they have a lot of work to do to simplify the techniques used in prosthetic and bulky machines that transform the nerves and digital signals between the robotic arm and the patient. Maria Rossini said that important steps have been taken to move forward. In collaboration with Petrozlo, these Italian scientists also collaborated with a simultaneous EU-funded project called “SmartHand”, which has been developed to be safe to patients directly. The robotic arm on the body.

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