Rocket-Powered Bionic Arm Successfully Tested

amigoro writes "A rocket-powered bionic arm has been successfully developed and tested by a team of mechanical engineers at Vanderbilt University as part of a $30 million military program to develop advanced prosthetic devices for next generation of super-soldiers."

Comments

Disabled vets, anyone?

[graft]

Didn't it occur to anyone that the reason DARPA might be interested in this is the hundreds of vets with missing limbs who have a need for better prosthetics? The military applications of this technology seems marginal at best. I'm sure DARPA is funding all sorts of military robotics research (in fact, I know they are), but this sure as hell isn't it.

Re:Disabled vets, anyone?

[Garridan]

No. The Pentagon doesn't give a shit about the vets. Don't you read the news?

Re:Disabled vets, anyone?

[CastrTroy]

While I think it would be great for them to give soldiers some of their limbs back, if even in limited form, It seems that these appendages won't quite give them back what they once had for many years to come. How long until they can curl 50 lbs. How long until they have enough control to play video games, or type, or even just operate a remote control. Seems to me the 30 million would be better spent researching ways to stops getting into so many wars.

Re:Disabled vets, anyone?

[phantomlord]

Seems to me the 30 million would be better spent researching ways to stops getting into so many wars. You do realize that emergency medicine (ie, that trauma center at your local hospital), plastic/reconstructive surgery, prosthetics, etc all have their roots in military need, don't you? If your kid is born with a facial deformity, be glad that somewhere along the line, soldiers had their face rebuilt after taking severe wounds. If you get stabbed in the park, be glad that the military devised a method of mobilizing, classifying, and treating wounds. If you get in an accident and completely shatter your foot beyond repair, be glad the military invested the R&D in amputation techniques and how to build a better lower leg.

Replacements will eventually get better. In fact, there was a story on slashdot a couple weeks ago about a new hand, As to the person saying the military will only get such things for high ranking soldiers, the story I saw on tv was about one Sgt. Juan Arredondo. Not only not major brass, he's hispanic as well.

Everyone has a pet project on how they'd want to spend X million dollars... and we'll never agree 100% on any expenditure. However, I feel it is our duty to return as much life back to those who volunteered to protect our lives and freedom. Also, lets be realistic, as long as people are human, they will disagree and disagreements will eventually spill over into war of some kind (be it one military against another, one gang against another or two siblings fighting that goes too far).