Whether it’s babysitting, operating on a patient, or cooking a Sunday dinner, there are many times when an extra pair of arms would come in handy.
Now researchers say that such a human augmentation could be on the horizon, suggesting that additional robotic body parts could be engineered to augment our capabilities.
Tamar Makin, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the MRC brain and cognition unit at the University of Cambridge, said the approach could boost productivity.
“If you want an extra arm while cooking in the kitchen so you can stir soup while cutting vegetables, you may have the option to independently use and control an extra robotic arm,” he said.
The approach takes precedence: Dani Clode, a designer and Makin’s colleague at Cambridge University, has already created a 3d printed thumb that can be added to either hand. Clode will discuss the device as part of the panel on “Homo cyberneticus: motor augmentation for the body of the future” at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington DC on Friday.
Makin said the extra thumb could be useful for waiters holding plates, or electrical engineers welding, for example, and that other parts of the robotic body could be designed for particular workplace needs. For example, an extra arm could help a builder hammer a nail while he holds a beam in place.
We talked to a surgeon [who] he was really interested in holding his camera while he had shoulder surgery, rather than having his assistant hold his camera,” Clode said. “He wanted to have full control of the tools that he used with both hands while he was holding the camera and could manipulate it as well.”
The team says that robotic body parts could allow for much more control than a simple mounted device, with their operation inspired by our natural mechanisms of action. “We want something we can control [very] precisely without us having to articulate what exactly we want,” Makin said.
She said the team’s approach was based on the idea that the extra appendages could be used to build on the existing capabilities of a person’s body.
“If he’s missing a limb, instead of trying to replace it, why don’t we enlarge his intact hand to allow him to do more with it?” she said. But the team envisions such devices also being used by people not living with disabilities.
Clode said an important feature of human augmentation devices is that they don’t take away the user’s original abilities. “[It’s] a layer on the body that can be worn with the least amount of impact possible for the most amount of gain,” he said.
A key aspect of that, Clode added, is that unlike a shovel used to increase our abilities to dig a hole, such robotic body parts should not be manually operated.
The extra thumb, for example, is connected to two wrist-based motors that are connected to a battery and microcontroller in the upper arm. This system is wirelessly connected to microcontrollers mounted on the wearer’s shoes or ankles, which are connected to pressure sensors under the two big toes. “You push these pressure sensors, and that’s what the thumb controls,” Clode said.
But Makin said the approach has raised new questions. “We are doing a lot of research right now to see what it does to your nervous system if you start to reappropriate your toes to become an extra toe – how much [does] Does it affect your ability to use your toes like a toe? she said.
Some labs have focused on the possibility of using electrodes in the brain or spinal cord to control external devices, but Makin believes there is no ethical justification for such an invasive approach in healthy humans.
When Clode recently carried out research at the Royal Society’s summer science exhibition, where members of the public were given the chance to try out the extra thumb, the results were startling.
“[Of around] 600 people between the ages of three and 97, 98% could use it in the first minute, which means they could already move objects as directed,” Makin said. “I can’t imagine a brain chip that can do that.”
