An article that written on Prosthetics cited the man with 13 legs. Goodness! I wondered if it was a fictional story or just a new set of technology for the aged above 100 (jokingly). I decided to have a brief study on the strange technology that involved the use of specially designed Prosthetic legs for humans.
How many of you remember, the film called ‘BattleShip? Remember, those pair of awesome engineered legs worn by one of the retired navals. That’s close it is. But these are, mehn…chai
From robotic legs to laser arms, the owners of artificial limbs are no longer content with only one replacement, as Frank Swain discovers.
Omkaar Kotedia / Alternative Limb Project
From robotic legs to laser arms, the owners of artificial limbs are no longer content with only one replacement, as Frank Swain discovers.
When Jozef Metelka gets up in the morning, one of his first decisions is which leg he’ll be wearing that day. After losing his right leg in a motorbike accident in 2009, the keen athlete has built up a collection of 12 specialist prosthetics designed to do everything from mountain biking to snowboarding.
Metelka’s first prosthetic leg was a basic model from the UK’s National Health Service, which allowed him to stand and walk, but was “nothing special”. Then he met with specialists at PACE Rehabilitation in Cheadle, UK, and his collection began to grow. The prostheticists at PACE began designing a suite of limbs to get him up and running – and skiing, and biking, and rollerblading. Each time Metelka suggested a new sport, the team designed a corresponding leg.
CREDIT: BBC TECH
Sophie de Oliveira of the Alternative Limb Project, creating multi-functional prosthetics.
Creating a prosthetic that performs in all situations with the skill and flexibility of a human limb is, at the moment, not possible. Instead, prosthetics are created with specific goals in mind. Each of Metelka’s legs arrives with a particular design challenge. Weight, strength and durability must all be balanced, as well as considerations about the environment: water, mud, and ice. For downhill mountain biking, the engineers designed a leg that could pivot at the ankle and included a robust shock absorber that could endure the heavy drops down steep hillsides. By contrast, Metelka’s road racing leg is a streamlined flute made from a single piece of carbon fibre, lightweight and very stiff. It was even tested in a wind tunnel.
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