The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has handed the first pair of prosthetic arms to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland in an effort to facilitate the deployment of the device to veterans and uniformed personnel who suffered upper limb loss.
Mobius Bionics produced the Life Under Kinetic Evolution bionic arm through DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, DARPA said Thursday.
DEKA Integrated Solutions developed the technology behind the LUKE prosthetic system and filed a 510(k) premarket application with the Food and Drug Administration in 2012 to seek approval for the device.
LUKE is a battery-powered device that has an arm and six selectable grips and works to help users control multiple joints through wireless signals derived from sensors on the user’s feet.
Justin Sanchez, director of DARPA’s biological technologies office, said the agency plans to link the prosthetic to the users’ central nervous and peripheral systems in an effort to restore upper arm control among amputees.
