Episode 90 – Robotically Augmented People

Episode 90 – Robotically Augmented People Claire Asher

Robotic prosthetics and human augmentation

00:00:30 – Intro – Welcome
00:00:55 – Milia Helena Hasbani – Control of active prosthetic arms
00:06:53 – Benjamin Metcalfe – Neural interfaces and implanted devices
00:09:58 – Dani Clode – The future architecture of our bodies
00:13:45 – Claire Asher – Group discussion
00:18:35 – Audience question – Is the prosthetic arm heavy?
00:22:18 – Audience question – Do you miss your robotic thumb when it's gone?
00:23:03 – Audience question – How does the brain respond to prosthetics and augmentation?
00:25:06 – Audience question – Have you made prosthetics for babies and children?
00:29:16 – Audience question – What are the societal impacts of human augmentation?
00:33:55 – Audience question – Are there any dangers of a robotic thumb?
00:34:44 – Audience question – How can AI be used in prosthetics and augmentation?
00:36:35 – Audience question – Are there technologies to give prosthetic users sensory feedback?
00:38:06 – Audience question – Can sensory feedback help phantom limb pain?
00:38:58 – Audience question – What are the biggest breakthroughs in prosthetics and augmentation?
00:43:59 – Audience question – What is the international landscape like for prosthetics?
00:46:46 – Audience question – What is the role of governments and the private sector in R&D?
00:50:15 – Outro – Thanks for listening

Robotics is helping to rehabilitate and increase human abilities in areas like mobility and stamina. Innovations in robotic devices, exoskeletons, and wearable tech aim to offer disabled people different perspectives and new experiences, as well as supporting humans more widely to access, inhabit and work safely in dangerous and extreme conditions. What does the future hold for these technologies and the people they will become a part of?

In this special live recording at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Great Exhibition Road Festival, Claire chatted to Milia Helena Hasbani (Imperial College London), Benjamin Metcalfe (University of Bath) and Dani Clode (Cambridge University) about robotic prosthetics and human augmentation.

Milia Helena Hasbani is a researcher in assistive technology at Imperial College London. She is passionate about improving people’s lives through innovation in healthcare and technology in multi-disciplinary environments interfacing with engineers, clinicians, and patients. Her research focuses on the control of active prosthetic arms, combining user intention for wrist movements with a computer vision system for dynamically selecting the grasp type to be used.

Benjamin Metcalfe is a biomedical engineer who specialises in neural interfaces and implanted devices. He is Head of the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath and Deputy Director of the Bath Institute for the Augmented Human. He is also Vice-President (Academic) of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. His interests explore the collision between technology and biology and the extent to which engineering can be used to augment and enhance human performance.

Dani Clode is an augmentation and prosthetics designer. She is the Senior Technical Specialist at the Plasticity Lab at Cambridge University and a collaborator of the Alternative Limb Project. Dani’s work investigates the future architecture of our bodies, challenging the perception and boundaries of extending the human form. Her main project the ‘Third Thumb’ is currently being utilised in collaboration with neuroscientists at Cambridge University, investigating the brain’s ability to adapt to human augmentation.