A rectangular man with very little movement and emotion in his arms was feeding himself for the first time in 30 years – and he did so using his mind.
Robert ‘Buz’ Chmielewski was involved in a surfing accident as a teenager, but in 2019 underwent 10-hour surgery to insert six electrodes into his brain to control a pair of robotic arms.
Working with John Hopkins Medicine (JHM), Chmielewski is now able to operate and manipulate both prosthetic arms to perform separate tasks, such as feeding himself Twinkie.
‘It’s really cool,’ said Chmielewski, who had a surprising sense of accomplishment after using his thoughts to order the robotic arms to cut and feed a piece of golden sponge cake.
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Robert ‘Buz’ Chmielewski was involved in a surfing accident as a teenager, but in 2019 he underwent a 10-hour surgery to insert six electrodes into his brain to control a pair of robotic arms and just showed the ability to feed itself
‘I wanted to be able to make more of it,’ he said.
When Chmielewski was 16 years old he was involved in a surf crash in Maryland that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down, with very few movements in the wrists and shoulders.
And at age 49, he volunteered for the research program with Johns Hopkins
When Chmeilewski went through the 2019 approach, the goal was to improve hand sensitivity and enable robotic prosthetic arms to function.
With this system, Chmielewski was able to manipulate both arms to perform different tasks
Each square row is two and a half inches and has small spikes below.
Three electrodes connect to Chmeilweki’s left and right arms and the others are connected to areas of the brain that provide feedback from the prosthetic fingers.
Just months after the surgery, he was able to control the robotic arms through a machine-brain interface developed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
Pablo Celnik, MD, director of physical therapy and rehabilitation at JHM and a member of the research team, said: ‘This type of research, known as the brain-computer interface (BCI), has largely focused on just one arm, controlled from just one side of the brain. ‘
The scientists involved in the project aimed to design a closed-loop system that combines artificial intelligence, robotics and a machine-machine interface.
This involved holding the cake on the plate with form while the other arm cut the cake with a knife. And then the other arm allowed Chmielewski to feed himself
With this system, Chmielewski was able to manipulate both arms to perform different tasks.
This involved holding the cake on the plate with form while the other arm cut the cake with a knife.
And then the other arm allowed Chmielewski to feed himself.
David Handelman, APL’s leading robot specialist who specializes in human device teaming, said: ‘Our ultimate goal is to make tasks such as eating easy to perform, make the robot do one part of the job and leave the consumer, in this case Buz, above the details: what food to eat, where to cut it, how big the cut piece should be. ‘
‘By combining brain-computer interface signals with robots and artificial intelligence, we allow the person to focus on the most important parts of the task.’
Each square row is two and a half inches and has small spikes below. Three electrons connect to Chmeilweki’s left and right arms and the others are connected to areas of the brain that provide feedback from the prosthetic fingers.
Francesco Tenore, APL neuroscientist and lead researcher for the study of Smart Prosthetics, said the next steps are to expand the number and types of daily life that Chmielweski can reveal with the type of machine-co-operation. this human.
In addition, provide him with additional sensory feedback while completing tasks so that he does not have to rely on vision to determine if he is succeeding.
The idea is that he would experience this in the same way that uninjured people can feel like they are tying their belts, for example, without taking look at what they are doing, ‘said Tenore.
Chmielweski conducted an interview just before Thanksgiving Day where he thought about the meaning of this research for people with limited mobility.
Disabilities are like depriving a person of independence, he said, especially the ability to eat on their own.
‘A lot of people take that seriously,’ he said. ‘To be able to do this independently and still be able to interact with the family is a play change.’