Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables
A group of researchers at Vanderbilt have built a mechanical arm that outperforms traditional battery-powered prosthetics the old-fashioned way: by strapping on a couple rocket motors. The arm, which the team built for DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program, relies on a modified miniature version of the same rocket motors the space shuttle uses to reposition itself in space: hydrogen peroxide is burned in the presence of a catalyst to produce pure steam, which is then used to move the arm. Unlike the batteries