Bionics Letting Us Run, Climb and Dance

Video credit: TED

Professor Hugh Herr tells his TED story… a human story of bionic integration, how electromechanics were attached and implanted inside his body to bridge the gap between ‘disability’ and ‘ability’.

It is the story of a remarkable man and remarkable scientists whose bionic limbs are attached to his body via synthetic skins with stiffness variations, that mirror his own tissue biomechanics.

To build his bionic limb, Herr’s research team used medical imaging, robotic data and mathematical models to describe his biological limb and design synthetic skin.

For Herr, it was evident that the best results were achieved when the body was stiff and the synthetic skin was soft, or the body was soft, and the skin was stiff. And this was the case across all tissue interfaces.

With this framework, the seasoned mountain climber and scientist produced the most comfortable limbs he’d ever worn.