ABSTRACT
A prosthetic limb is an external device that replaces musculoskeletal function lost because of limb amputation. Such limb loss may be attributed to trauma-related injury, cancer, or complications of the vascular system. e ultimate goal of prostheses is the restoration of full limb control and functionality using an engineered articial limb. As evidenced by the current state of the art in upper and lower extremity prostheses, there continues to be signicant gaps between articial limbs and the intact appendages for which they are designed as replacements. Historically, the major limitations in prosthetic limb development have been twofold: (1) the lack of a power/actuation system with human-scale size, weight, and power outputs, and (2) the lack of a multi-degree-of-freedom neural interface to the amputee user for purposes of command and control. Because of these constraints, typical commercial prostheses have limited degrees of freedom capable of only a subset of an intact limb’s full suite of output capability.
