Christopher,
My first point is one of terminology:
Prosthetics: The profession of artificial limb making/fitting.
Prosthetist: One who provides the above service.
Prosthesis: i.e. an artificial limb.
Please note the one cannot power a prosthetic since this word is an adjective.
One could however power a prosthetic limb or a prosthesis.
I do recall someone doing research with this wire for prosthetic applications while I was at
Michigan State University in the early 1990’s. Contact Dr. Robert Hubbard in the dept. of
Biomedical Engineering. It was an under grad project so I cannot tell you how far they got.
Tom
“Rapp, Christopher x13307b2” wrote:
> Ladies and Gentlemen;
>
> Recently, I was introduced to Nitonol (a.k.a. Muscle Wire) and its use in
> microrobotics. As an EE major, I am always looking for new ways to solve
> problems, and this seemed to jump out at me. Since I do not know very much
> about the field of prosthetics, I joined this server in hopes of attaining
> some information on the subject.
>
> In a more specific sense, I would like to look at the problem of using
> Nitonol to power a prosthetic (such as a lower arm/hand/fingers system)
> using an entirely electronic control and function architecture, possibly as
> a senior thesis. If any of you have been or currently involved with similar
> research, any information or guidance would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you very much for your time.
>
> Respectfully,
> CDT Christopher Lennox Rapp
>
> CDT SGT, ’01
> United States Military Academy
>
>
