Bionics: the future of human movement

From the iconic “Iron Man” comics to the “Six Million Dollar Man,” bionics have long been a part of science fiction. For years these types of technologies seemed unattainable, but researchers at the Human Neuromechanics Laboratory at the University of Florida are working towards making prosthetics and anatomical enhancements a reality.

On Friday, Jan. 24, students, faculty and community members gathered in a lecture room in Norm Asbjornson Hall to listen to Daniel Ferris, Ph.D., speak about the research he and his team of students are conducting at the Human Neuromechanics Laboratory. The seminar, titled “Merging Humans and Machines to Assist Legged Locomotion,” included Ferris’ past and current research as well as what he sees as some of the biggest challenges going forward in developing lower-limb exoskeletons. 

Ferris is a professor at the University of Florida and has received many distinguished awards and honors. He is the Robert W. Adenbaum Professor and Senior Associate Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida, Editor-In -Chief for IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, an NSF Career Award recipient, and a Founders’ Award recipient from the American Society of Biomechanics.

Dr. Ferris began his seminar by displaying images of bionics from well-known science fiction movies and stating how his fascination with these mechanisms fuels his research. He acknowledged that these systems are still far from being a reality, but explained how the field is moving toward more complex and impressive devices. Ferris then delved into his group’s work with bionic lower-limb prostheses. 

He explained that the Neuromechanics Laboratory is working on a couple of different types of systems — some designed to be assistive devices and others for prostheses meant to replace a lost lower extremity. The assistive devices are aimed towards helping people accomplish what Ferris called “super-human” tasks, although they aren’t the ones out of comic books. Much of these assistive exoskeletons are designed to reduce the amount of energy consumed by a user when walking. Ferris spoke of military applications where these exoskeletons could be attached to soldiers to help them walk or hike further than their unaltered bodies would allow. This type of technology also has the ability to reduce stress-related injuries. The prostheses, of course, are meant to replace the loss of a lower-limb and give people the ability to locomote as if they had a fully-functional lower-limb.

Ferris then explained one of the largest obstacles facing these devices — agility. Current bionics do not allow users to quickly adapt to their environment, which is a vital component in making a bionic feel completely integrated with the user’s body. Ferris outlined a few methods currently used to help bionics act instead of react to users’ motion. Currently, he believes in using electromyography (EMG) to make bionics more agile. This technique involves using sensors that sense when muscles are being activated. Ferris said this is a reliable and quick predictor of motion, allowing exoskeletons and prostheses to act in conjunction with the user. He also pointed out that others are using electroencephalograms (EEG) to monitor brain activity dictating movements, but he believes the delay in processing these signals is currently too long to be useful. Going forward, Ferris believes a hybrid system consisting of both EMG’s and EEG’s will be the best approach toward providing users with the most agile and stable movements as biomechanists work toward better, more robust solutions.

For more information about Ferris’ and the Human Neuromechanics Laboratory research visit faculty.eng.ufl.edu/human-neuromechanics-laboratory/.