A Mexican engineer has helped build a robotic arm for his lifelong friend, aiming to make prosthetics simpler and more accessible.
Researchers in Mexico have developed a robotic arm they say reduces the complexity that often leads patients to abandon prosthetic devices.
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The prosthetic, called E-Redi, was created at the University of Guadalajara and allows users to control different hand movements using a single muscle sensor.
Developers say simplifying the technology could make prosthetics easier to learn and more widely accessible.
"We explain it this way: an arm that can be used by anyone who is missing a limb, whether amputees or people with congenital malformations," says Dr Erick Guzmán, director of the E-Redi project.
"Our E-Redi device is so simple that with a single muscle sensor you can control different prosthetic levels, which helps ensure the device is easily adapted and accepted by our future users."
The first person to test the prototype was Alberto Orozco, who was born with meromelia, a rare congenital condition resulting in the partial absence of a limb.
"I met Kokelo at a summer course,” Orozco recalls. "He was ten, and I was about thirteen, and he asked me: what happened to your arm? And joking, I told him that a shark had eaten my arm, and then after a while I told him the truth."
The boy asking questions was Jorge Velazco - now the mechanical designer behind E-Redi, and still Orozco's closest friend.
"We got to the point where we were watching movies like Star Wars or Robocop,” Velazco says. "Movies that had this mechanical and modern aspect. Then there was a moment when, maybe jokingly, we said that one day I'm going to make you an arm, and you're going to have your bionic arm."
Years later, Velazco decided to turn that promise into his university thesis project.
"Little by little I began to acquire more knowledge," he explains. "And then the idea came to me to combine my thesis project with the promise I had made to Beto some time ago. And at that moment Professor Erick arrived and said, ‘Okay, let's put all this together and give Beto an arm.’"
The E-Redi prosthetic uses muscle signals detected in the socket to control movement and researchers say future versions may even combine muscle activity with voice commands.
"Currently our device is controlled through muscle signals and we are a few steps away from being able to integrate voice commands and muscle activity," Guzmán says.
Reducing the time of adaptability
One of the project’s main goals is reducing the time needed for users to adapt to a prosthetic.
"If someone suddenly arrives and tries to adapt a prosthetic device, learning how to do that takes time,” Guzmán says. "E-Redi aims to make a quick adaptation that can help people quickly get used to using their prosthetic device."
Orozco said the technology has improved significantly during development: "Any prosthesis now I find truly impressive, especially coming from my best friend who made it with so much love and dedication," he says, adding that earlier versions were more limited but now "it’s on par with many others on the market."
Researchers hope the simplified design will allow more people to adopt prosthetic technology.
