Bionic leg helps shark-attack victim walk

Shark attack victim uses bionic leg

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Bionic leg is the result of a nine-year research effort led by Michael Goldfarb at Vanderbilt
• The world's first fully robotic leg allows amputees to run and navigate inclines naturally
• The technology was bought by Freedom Innovations and is slated to be released in 2014
• One of its first users is a young man who lost his leg in a shark attack in Florida

 Craig Hutto lost his right leg in a shark attack when he was 16 years old.

Soon after that he became one of the first people to test out a new prosthetic leg created at Vanderbilt University. Researchers there have developed the first fully robotic artificial leg for above-knee amputees. The "bionic leg," as it is called, uses a variety of sensors and motors that replicate muscle and joint movement in a healthy limb.

This mechanism creates a more natural stride and allows users to do things that are not possible with normal prosthesis, such as run or go up and down steps and inclines in a natural way.

While we're not quite at the point of "The Six Million Dollar Man" bionics, exoskeleton technology is starting to show real promise in helping people with disabilities.