News
First-of-its-kind Bioengineered Robotic Hand to Sense Touch
Nov. 14, 2017The sense of touch is often taken for granted. For someone without a limb or hand, losing that sense of touch can be devastating. While highly sophisticated prostheses with complex moving fingers and joints are available to mimic almost every hand motion, they remain frustratingly difficult and unnatural for the user. This is largely because they lack the tactile experience that guides every movement. This void in sensation results in limited use or abandonment of these very expensive artificial devices. So why not make a prosthesis that can actually "feel" its environment? Read More
Prosthetics with a Sense of Touch
Nov. 13, 2017 | By Lois K. Solomon, Staff writer, South Florida Sun-SentinelFAU researchers use mouse cells to develop artificial limbs with ability to feel. It sounds like an idea from the 22nd century: A robotic hand for amputees, with its own nervous system grown from mouse cells. But Florida Atlantic University engineers are developing these computerized prostheses right now in a lab in Boca Raton. Read More
Student Spotlight: Jennifer Frame, Mechanical Engineering Graduate Student
July 26, 2016Jennifer Frame, left Ohio in 2011 after graduating from high school and joined FAU as a freshman August of that year. While at FAU she was a volunteer note-taker for the Office of Students with Disabilities; a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society; participated in the Human Powered Submarine club, winning the fastest female pilot award at the 12th International Submarine Races; and received two internships — one at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts after her junior year, and the second at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Panama City Division, in Florida after her senior year. Read More
FAU Scientist Designs Bio-inspired Robotic Finger that Looks, Feels and Works Like the Real Thing
October 8, 2015Most robotic parts used today are rigid, have a limited range of motion and don’t really look lifelike. Inspired by both nature and biology, a scientist from Florida Atlantic University has designed a novel robotic finger that looks and feels like the real thing. In an article recently published in the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, Erik Engeberg, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering within the College of Engineering and Computer Science at FAU, describes how he has developed and tested this robotic finger using shape memory alloy (SMA), a 3D CAD model of a human finger, a 3D printer, and a unique thermal training technique. Read More