The UK’s strong tradition of clinical innovation in orthopaedics is exemplified by its groundbreaking products, driven by the need for longer-lasting devices and less-invasive surgery.
The latest development is no exception.
Using artificial intelligence, researchers in China and the UK are creating software that will learn and copy human hand movements.
They hope to replicate this in a robotic device that will be able to perform the dexterous actions only capable today by the human hand.
We are talking about having super high-level control of a robotic device. Nothing which exists today even comes close
Dr Honghai Liu
Senior lecturer
University of Portsmouth
Dr Honghai Liu, senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, and Professor Xiangyang Zhu from Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, were awarded a Royal Society grant recently to further their research.
Cutting edge technology
The technology has the potential to revolutionise the manufacturing industry and medicine. The researchers hope that in the future it could be used to produce the perfect artificial limb.
“A robotic hand which can perform tasks with the dexterity of a human hand is one of the holy grails of science,” said Dr Honghai Liu who lectures in artificial intelligence at Portsmouth University’s Institute of Industrial Research.
The institute specialises in artificial intelligence (AI) including intelligent robotics, image processing and intelligent data analysis.
Dr Honghai Liu said: “We are talking about having super high-level control of a robotic device. Nothing which exists today even comes close.”
He used a cyberglove covered in tiny sensors to capture data about how the human hand moves. It was filmed in a motion capture suite by eight high-resolution, CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras with infrared illumination and measurement accuracy up to a few millimetres.
UK orthopaedics
Professor Xiangyang Zhu - from the Robotics Institute at Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University, recognised as one of the world-class research institutions on robotics - said that the research partnership would strengthen the interface between AI techniques and robotics, paving the way for a new chapter in robotics technology.
He added: “Humans move efficiently and effectively in a continuous flowing motion, something we have perfected over generations of evolution and which we all learn to do as babies. Developments in science mean we will teach robots to move in the same way.”
Global collaboration
Strong historic links between surgeons and scientists ensure that the UK is among the first to develop next-generation precision tools and powered prostheses.
The UK is a natural collaborator and supplier for the world’s medical equipment companies and healthcare providers. Its biomaterials sector is projected to see earnings grow from 37 million US dollars in 2005 to 115 million in 2012.
The UK is a natural collaborator and supplier for the world’s medical equipment companies and healthcare providers
The UK Government is committed to sustaining the success of its orthopaedics sector and has established new programmes and procedures to speed and streamline the progress of world-class advances from research laboratory to commercial launch.
World-class innovation
Meanwhile, growing global demand for innovation in the sector is enabling world-class UK-headquartered organisations such as Smith & Nephew to outperform the market.
In 2006, the company reported technologically advanced products launched that year were responsible for generating 24 per cent of all revenue In the same year UK-based orthopaedic companies exported almost 1.8 billion dollars’ worth of equipment and goods.
Of benefit not only to the sector’s health and healthcare provision at home, these developments are having an impact worldwide, creating a wealth of new business opportunities for overseas organisations that are based here.
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