Prosthetic devices have made it possible to restore functionality in individual suffering from limbs lost in battle or from conditions requiring amputation, for hundreds of decades. This paper highlights the history of prosthetics, and describes a brain controlled robotic leg designed to carry out ordinary functions of a human leg. This robotic leg acts similar to an ordinary leg, and can carry out functions like walking, climbing stairs, and running among others. Its entire system is controlled through a set of advanced digital signal processors and microcontrollers. Electroencephalography technique make it possible for signals to be tapped from the human brain and make it possible for operations such as walking and running to be triggered just by thought. This proposed system is thus appropriate for those who lost their legs and is 100% feasiblle in the real-time environment powered by today’s available technology.
History
Prosthetics first began as leather and wooden cups as well as simple crutches and eventually progressed into a peg that freed the hands for daily functions. A peg leg held fabric rags to give way for a wide range of motion. Throughout the Second Punic War (218 to 210B.C) Marcus Sergius – a general who had his right arm amputated alongside major injuries – was in communication with Pliny the elder. An iron hand was built and attached to clutch his shield in place for the period of the battle (Niman n.p.). However, there was no prosthetic development during the Dark Ages. Only few prosthetics alternatives were available to amputees apart from peg legs and hand hooks, which only a handful could afford. By 1508, prosthetic devices were still not any better. German knight Gotz of the Iron Hand, was fitted with a prosthetic hand, which had movable fingers. However, it was not until 1696 did the first movable prosthetic leg came to being. This was then followed by Dr. Vanghetti’s invention of 1898, an artificial arm that could assume motion through muscle contractions. The muscles themselves had to be attached to parts of the prosthetic mechanism.