Revolutionizing Prosthetics : Systems Engineering Challenges and Opportunities

186 INTRODUCTION Advances in battlefield trauma care and improved body armor for soldiers have combined to increase the survivability of injuries experienced in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although the body armor protects the torso and internal organs, the soldier’s limbs remain vulnerable to blast and ballistic injuries, which are often caused by the use of improvised explosive devices. These injuries can subsequently lead to amputation. Surprisingly, the familiar images of restored limbs from Star Wars or i, Robot do not actually exist. Most upper-limb amputees choose a simple, effective, hook-like device that has not advanced much in 400 years. Spurred to restore quality of life to injured warfighters and aware of the complexities of the arm and hand, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored the Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program to develop a new generation of upper-extremity prostheses. APL formed and led an international team of more than 30 corporate, government, and academic partners to develop this system to mimic the human limb. In January n 2005 the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued a request to develop the world’s most advanced prosthetic limb. It was required that this limb have the strength, sensation, weight, comfort, and appearance of a native human limb. In addition, this limb system had to be neurally controlled using the patient’s mind—as opposed to by traditional methods involving body movements, switches, force-sensitive devices, and inputs from the patient’s remaining muscles. APL won the right to meet this need after a competitive bid process. We had 4 years to complete this challenge and create a limb that was ready to go into clinical trials at completion of the program. This article describes the systems engineering challenges the Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 team faced and the tools, techniques, and processes they used to overcome these challenges over the course of this unique program. We focus on the factors that led to success in a team environment with a diversity of technical disciplines, geography, and organizational cultures. Revolutionizing Prosthetics: Systems Engineering Challenges and Opportunities