ANALYTIC UNDERPINNING OF BIOMIMETIC PROSTHETICS Contents


Bringing technology to life Felix Grant on the data analysis involved in developing a new generation of prostheses


Interview: Statistically speaking Statistical models play a fundamental role in scientific discovery, as Professor Mark Girolami, chair of statistics at University College London, explains


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Interview: Welcome to the revolution


The computer has revolutionised statistics, says David Hand, professor of statistics at Imperial College London


Case studies:


24


Case in point Felix Grant examines some of the many applications of statistical software


Reviews: In review Felix Grant reviews some of the latest statistical software packages available


Products


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22 I


Bringing technology


to life


Biomimetic electromechanical prostheses are delivering the first generation of active replacement parts, but between biological inspiration and industrial delivery comes a lot of data analysis. Felix Grant explains


n the decade just past, the case of South African athlete and double amputee Oscar Pistorius posed difficult questions about what it means, in a physical rather than philosophical sense, to be human. Using lower leg prostheses built by Iceland- based orthopaedics company Össur, he achieved times which pushed him into contention with his foremost able-bodied competitor, raising questions about when replacement becomes enhancement. Össur’s Bionic Technology


Platform, with its particular emphasis on elite sports, is pushing the leading edge of prosthetic design. Its joints mimic biological operation in several ways, both physical and conceptual, including the incorporation of artificial intelligence centres that reflect the role of localised subsystem decision making by the nervous system. Similar development thinking is expressed in the various ‘powered exoskeleton’ prototypes designed for disability, military, and industrial applications. One company involved in this latter direction is Honda, with a lightweight ‘Stride Management Assist’ partial exoskeleton that supports the enhanced use of weakened legs; and Honda, of course, is famous for its Asimo humanoid robot. Throughout prosthesis development the emphasis is on a striving for ever closer physical and, to an even greater degree, systemic biomimesis. Cybernetics and robotics progress by leaps and bounds. From the other direction, biology is looking


18 Statistics special


Various technologies show signs of merging


towards the point where mixed cyborg solutions to body repair, once the territory of science


fiction, seem increasingly likely to be the future – and at a fraction of the Six Million Dollar Man’s price tag


towards exploitation of multipotent, pluripotent and even totipotent cells. The various technologies show signs of merging towards the point where mixed cyborg solutions to body repair, once the territory of science fiction, seem increasingly likely to be the future – and at a fraction of the Six Million Dollar Man’s price tag, at that. In the short term, though, it is biomimetic electromechanical prostheses that are delivering the first generation of active replacement parts. Between biological inspiration and industrial delivery, however, comes a lot of data analysis. Some of the problems


in this area are common to many information-based developing technologies: the need for small, lightweight, highly energy dense power supplies is one example. A metasurvey[1]


by Highsmith


and others of data analytic studies into the comparative ‘safety, energy efficiency, and cost efficacy’ of intelligent prosthetic knee joints shows


another, more specifically detailed, side. Others, such as matching the body’s stance tuning[2]


or


methods of dealing with the somatic effects of interfacing[3, 4]


flesh to artificial components, are


context specific. A seductively complex topic in this context- specific domain, from a data analytic point of view, is the interaction of the whole organism with supporting surfaces upon which it moves. When a part of the organism is replaced with a prosthesis, that prosthesis must either duplicate or otherwise


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