University of Utah doctoral student Jacob George, left, and associate professor Greg Clark examine the LUKE arm that they use for their experiments. A man who lost his lower arm in an electrical accident was able to experience some sense of touch and fine motor control with his grip while using the experimental device. University of Utah doctoral student Jacob George, left, and associate professor Greg Clark examine the LUKE arm that they use for their experiments. A man who lost his lower arm in an electrical accident was able to experience some sense of touch and fine motor control with his grip while using the experimental device. Keven Walgamott, a real estate agent who lost his left hand and part of his arm in an electrical accident in 2002, got emotional when he was able to clasp his hands together and "feel" the space between his thumb and his index finger using a 3D-printed prosthetic hand in 2016.

A robotic arm allows amputees to touch and feel objects again by using the power of thought to control it. The high-tech prosthetic, developed by the University of Utah, uses microwires implanted under the skin, which send signals to an external computer that tells the arm to move. The arm even has sensors that transmit signals to the microwires, mimicking the feeling of the hand when it grabs something. This allows users to'feel' objects being held so the brain knows not to cause the prosthetic hand too squeeze too tightly. Fascinating video shows real estate agent Keven Walgamott, who lost his hand and part of his arm in an accident, able to pluck grapes and hold eggs without crushing them - and even put on his wedding ring.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. Dean Kamen's DEKA R&D firm, with support from DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program, designed the advanced prosthetic LUKE Arm to give amputees "dexterous arm and hand movement through a simple, intuitive control system." The LUKE Arm, which stands for Life Under Kinetic Evolution but is also a reference to Luke Skywalker's bionic hand, "allows users to control multiple joints simultaneously and provides a variety of grips and grip forces by means of wireless signals generated by sensors worn on the feet or via other easy-to-use controllers."

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.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. FLASH Robotics has recently previewed its new EMYS robot head. The popping-out eyes are gone in this version, which aims to be more kid friendly, but it remains one of the weirdest looking and most expressive robot heads we've ever seen: This video is part of the DARS 2016 paper, "Programmable Self-Disassembly for Shape Formation in Large-Scale Robot Collectives," by Melvin Gauci, Radhika Nagpal, and Michael Rubenstein.

A hi-tech prosthetic arm, fit for Luke Skywalker himself, is to become available by the end of the year. The cutting-edge robotic limb has been designed by US military agency DARPA and inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen. According to its makers, the DEKA – nicknamed the'Luke arm' after the prosthetic used by the Star Wars sci-fi hero – will provide amputees with mechanical strength and dexterity far surpassing anything seen before. According to its makers the'Luke arm' (pictured) will provide amputees with mechanical strength and dexterity far surpassing anything seen before Originally developed with funding through a DARPA project to revolutionise prosthetics, the arm incorporates advanced motors, materials and electronics and can be tweaked to fit users with varying degrees of amputation. DARPA's foray into robotics has been associated with running robots and noisy battlefield droids, but its 2006 project aimed to drastically enhance the state of upper body prosthetic limbs for amputees.

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.