Page 36 - Modern Robotics Building Versatile Macines

16 Modern Robotics

Early in the 20th century, leg prostheses were clumsy and uncom-
fortable, while artificial arms were barely useful for grasping.
Wiener realized that since the human muscular system created elec-
trical signals, there was no reason why signals from the stump could
not be used to actuate a mechanical limb.
In the early 1960s, Wiener and MIT engineer Amar Bose designed
a motorized arm that could be strapped to the wearer’s remaining
stump. Sensors placed above the point of amputation would pick up
nerve signals and translate them to control signals to move the arm.
By using what would later be called biofeedback training, the wearer
could become increasingly dexterous in using the prostheses. The

PARALLELS: APPLICATIONS OF CYBERNETICS

In Cybernetics, Wiener had supplied what science historian Thomas
Kuhn would later call a “paradigm”—a model that could provide a
satisfying explanation for a group of phenomena. What was most
unusual about cybernetics is that it was a sort of “super paradigm”
that offered itself to many seemingly unrelated sciences and tech-
nologies. Some of the fields influenced by cybernetics include:

• Computer science—computer architecture, artificial intelligence,
networking, and control applications
• Industrial automation—computer-controlled machines and, even-
tually, industrial robots
• Robotics—robots that can sense and interact with their environment
• Electronics—signal processing, amplification, and circuit design
• Information theory—the relationship between information and order
• Sociology—communication and information exchange within cultures
• Neurology and cognitive science—structure and function of the
brain and nervous system
• Psychology—mental illness as a breakdown in information process-
ing, communications, or feedback

Although the specific use of the word cybernetics has declined in
recent decades, the underlying ideas remain important and have
contributed to interdisciplinary advances such as the creation of new
prosthetic devices.