Its creators nicknamed it the "Luke Arm," after Luke Skywalker's ultra-advanced bionic limb. Now, after nearly eight years of development and testing, this robotic arm for amputees has been approved for commercialization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The "Luke Arm," whose official name is DEKA Arm System, is one of the most advanced robotic prostheses ever built. According to the FDA, this is the first prosthetic arm approved by the agency that "translates signals from a person's muscles to perform complex tasks." The DEKA Arm was created by famed inventor Dean Kamen and his team at DEKA Research and Development Corp., in Manchester, N.H., as part of DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics program.

One of the most advanced prosthetic arms yet is coming to market this year, brought to you by robot-friendly U.S. military agency DARPA and the Segway inventor Dean Kamen. Mobius Bionics LLC, a medical device company, will produce the Luke arm commercially, named for the lifelike replacement Luke Skywalker received at the end of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded the arm and Dean Kamen's DEKA company designed it, with the goal to "develop an advanced electromechanical prosthetic upper limb with near natural control that would dramatically enhance independence and improve quality of life for amputees," according to the Mobius Bionics press release. The prosthesis combines a number of features to accomplish that goal. The system can accommodate people with varying levels of amputation.