Bionic legs created by Italian project

FLORENCE, ITALY – Italian researchers have developed a bionic fingertip that is able to recognise texture, pressure, hardness, curvature and other information deriving from touch.

The system is formed by “a matrix containing small sensors simulating the distribution of the nerve endings that are naturally present in the tips of the fingers,” said Calogero Oddo, director of the Human Machine Nexus Laboratory at the Sant’Anna school of advanced studies in Pisa.

Consequently, it is able to preceive and codify all the dimensions of touch. The artificial device could be ready for human trial within a year. Its primary aim is to improve the performance of prosthetic hands but it could also be applied to industrial robotics and to a new generation of tactile televisions and smartphones, researchers said.

The first set of bionic legs, the result of a project that combines artificial limbs with so-called wearable robots to enable amputees to walk with less effort, have been created, scientists said. Up to now 11 people have tested the bionic legs produced by a European project called Cyberlegs and coordinated from Italy via the bio-robotics institute of Pisa’s Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna University.

The tests took place at Florence’s Fondazione Don Gnocchi. “It’s a combination of technologies that help people walk in a natural way again,” said Nicola Vitiello, the project’s coordinator. The project was founded by Maria Chiara Carrozza, who was also in charge of it until she was sworn in as education minister in 2013. “The number of amputees is increasing and it’s a great success for them to be able to leave behind their crutches and wheelchairs,” said Carrozza, who was education minister until February 2014.