DoM's Dr. Patrick Pilarski and team places 8th in the world with a prosthetic arm that uses AI
13 January 2025
By Geoff McMaster, Folio
A University of Alberta research team has developed a prosthetic arm that uses artificial intelligence to respond to its user’s intention, winning eighth place in an international competition for assistive technologies that help people with disabilities in their everyday lives.
Using an onboard computer, the “Bento Arm” responds to a combination of muscle signals and electrical activity in an operator’s upper arm and shoulder to control the elbow and wrist with high degrees of precision and accuracy, “using machine learning to map his intent, his will, his desire for how the machine will move,” says Patrick Pilarski, co-lead of the Bionic Limbs for Improved Natural Control (BLINC) Lab, an interdisciplinary research group that designs smart prosthetics.
“Robotic limbs are increasingly common, but here the difference is that AI is critical for connecting the person with their robot arm,” he says.