Army contract seeks better robotic prosthetics.

• Author: Beidel, Eric
• Position: Defense Technology Newswire

Since 2003, more than 1,100 soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have had a limb amputated.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency spent $100 million to develop a robotic arm that can be controlled through a chip in a user's brain.

Now a Virginia technology company has been given $1.4 million to develop simulation and modeling techniques that could lead to more affordable robotic arm prosthetics.

Unlike similar research that relies on mannequins, Alion Science and Technology is developing a 3-D model of a limb based on ultrasound images, said program manager Terry Philippi.

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The ultimate goal is to use a syringe to implant wireless sensors into a patient's arm to optimize control of a prosthetic. But researchers first have to find the working nerves and muscles left after an injury. Amputations from bomb blasts are not as clean as those...