The World’s First Bionic Foot Mimics Natural Flex Of Foot

Image Source: AP

 Bionics

The BiOM prosthetic foot developed by MIT's Dr. Hugh Herr duplicates the flex and motion of a natural foot and is enabling amputees. It feels like people have their ankle back according to the company iWalk.

When Shawn Brown lost his foot in an industrial accident in 1992, it became for him a "weird, hidden opportunity"

Now a prostheticist, Brown works at the Indiana-based  SRT Prosthetics and Orthotics. He went on to participate as an athlete in the 1996 and 2000 Paralympic Games. He’s spent the last 20 years in the prosthetics field and now, his new prosthetic, the BiOM from iWalk, not only helps his patients with, but he uses it himself.

“Within minutes of putting BiOM on and walking down the sidewalk, my mind very quickly connected to being propelled forward. Every prosthetic I’ve used to this point has absorbed energy and didn’t give much back to me,” he said.

This key difference is why iWalk President and CEO Tim McCarthy described the BiOM to me as a truly “bionic” prosthetic, because it emulates human function.

“In order to understand what’s unique, you have to understand the tech that’s been broadly used for the past 25 years. If you were to suffer an amputation and fit with ‘yesterday’s tech’  the sensation you’d feel when walking is that the prosthetic is stepping in sand, while the good leg is stepping on pavement. The existing systems are grossly inefficient, which creates a gait asymmetry because users have to accommodate energy deficiency. This results in a lot of different health problems, such as weight gain and diabetes.”

“What BiOM does is replicate the action of foot and ankle, Achilles tendon, and lower calf. By emulating the bone and soft tissues, it can provide exactly the right amount of energy needed, which makes it as efficient as people with intact limbs. People have told me that it feels like they have their ankle back.”

Dr. Hugh Herr

The BiOM is the brainchild of Dr. Hugh Herr at MIT’s Media Lab. Herr is a double amputee himself, and has devoted his professional life to improving prosthetics. The BiOM was developed at MIT and licensed to iWalk in 2007. With grants from the Veteran’s Administration and the Department of Defense, iWalk was able to develop a proof of concept BiOM at the end of 2010. Commercial production began in 2011 and the BiOM is now in its second year of production.

“There’s really no comparison to our technology,” McCarthy told me. “We’re redefining what it means to be bionic by truly emulating human function. When people put on the BiOM, they walk out the door as though they never lost their leg.”

SOURCE  Forbes

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