Star-Wars-Inspired Prosthetic Arm Enters Market

With funding and a “thumbs up” from the FDA, the LUKE prosthetic arm should be available in late 2016. (Image courtesy of DARPA.)

The real world is slowly but surely catching up to the standards set by science fiction.

The LUKE arm, named after the character from the Star Wars franchise, has entered the market after gaining FDA approval and funding from Mobius Bionics.

Developed by DEKA Research and Development Corporation, with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), this advanced prosthetic arm offers amputees a range of movement previously unattainable through less advanced replacement limbs.

Powered shoulder and elbow joints allow for heavy lifting, while the sensitive multimovement wrist provides a high level of dexterity. Four independent motors in the hand allow for the gripping of delicate items such as eggs or a phone, while also offering enough strength to hold a bag of groceries or gallon of milk.

What is really impressive is the ability to control the arm’s movements via electrical impulses sent from the brain. Connected to muscles in the shoulder, electrodes determine the range of movements required by the bionic limb—though the arm can also be controlled by foot-mounted inertial measurement sensors as needed.

While the LUKE arm won’t come cheap—likely costing around $100,000—it will offer a standard of living previously unattainable by amputees and veterans—the group that DARPA had in mind when it invested in the project. Years of research with the assistance of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Rehabilitation Research and Development Service under a federal interagency agreement allowed DEKA to test and trial the arm with nearly 100 amputees and over 10,000 hours of use.

“Working one on one with the amputees and learning what they liked and didn’t like about using prostheses proved invaluable to our product development process. Thanks to their insight and input, we have been able to construct the most advanced FDA-cleared design that the world of upper-limb prosthetics has seen to date,” noted Dean Kamen, president of DEKA.

Demonstration of the LUKE arm’s grip sensitivity. (Image courtesy of DARPA.)

Mobius Bionics has chosen Universal Instruments Corporation to serve as the contract manufacturer of the LUKE arm.

“Universal Instruments is pleased to partner with Mobius Bionics to bring the LUKE arm to market, enabling greater independence for upper-limb amputees,” said Keith O’Leary, CFO and COO of Universal Instruments.

The partnership should allow the new prosthetic to be launched by late 2016.

For more on the latest developments in prosthetics, read about how the Enable Community Foundation gets personal with 3D-printed prosthetics.