Scientists are developing a robotic arm that is controlled by breathing

Scientists develop a robotic arm controlled by breathing |
A group of Swiss researchers has made a breakthrough in human-machine interface technology.

It’s likely that everyone in the world has been in a situation where they felt like they needed another arm; whether it’s carrying groceries or trying to juggle, literally. Now that dream is closer to reality. Researchers in Switzerland have created a robotic arm that can be moved by breathing.

Robotic extra arm
The December 2023 study published in Science Robotics has announced that a new era in human-machine interface technology has begun. Scientists have managed one robotic arm which can be controlled by gaze and diaphragm movements.

According to CGTN, the study, led by Dr. Silvestro Micera, the Bertarelli Foundation Chair in Translational Neuroengineering at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) aimed to produce a wearable robotic arm that could assist with daily tasks or rescue operations.

Furthermore, Micera and his team believed the study would give researchers insight into the human nervous system.

“We want to understand whether our brains are programmed to control what nature has given us, and we have shown that the human brain can adapt to coordinate new limbs, along with our biological limbs,” says Dr. Solaiman Shokur, one of the main researchers. of the study, CGTN told.

A virtual beginning
The researchers actually started their tests without the arm itself, said Nature. Instead of they tested the ability of gaze and diaphragm movements to control a virtual arm.

Study participants were equipped with virtual reality helmets that followed their gaze. This oriented a virtual third arm, which appeared to emerge from the center of their chest. A strap strapped around the center of their chest tracked the movement of their diaphragm, so they could use the way they breathed to lengthen or shorten the virtual arm.

Once that phase of the study was completed, the researchers developed an actual physical examination robotic arm that can stretch and rotate. It weighs less than two kilograms, which means that the weight is not a burden to the wearer. The participants who had practiced on the virtual arm had a 90 percent success rate when asked to perform a simple task with the arm, while those without experience had a 70 percent success rate.

According to News CGTN, the next steps for the research team are to create a more complex branch that can perform more complicated tasks.

The practical and somewhat whimsical implications of the invention of a robotic third arm are easy to imagine. The real breakthrough, however, lies in the ways in which the robotic arm could potentially help in more crucial areas, such as assisting people with disabilities, aiding in search and rescue, and most importantly, paving the way for even more creative and important human skills. -machine interface technologies.

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