"When you're up to your clavicle in alligators, it's tough to remember that the original objective was just to drain the swamp." Manufacturing seems to be like that today, surrounded by myriad alligators like offshore competition and out-of-control costs. Nonetheless, today's emerging technology will soon become the basis for tomorrow's products. A recent special report by Technology Review, MIT's magazine of innovation, offers us an excellent view over the technology horizon.
Mating robots with the nervous system will create a new generation of artificial limbs that work like the real thing. Some of the latest prosthetic knees on the market have built-in microprocessors that help the limbs move naturally. Professor Hugh Herr at MIT's Media Laboratory has taken this further, developing a knee with built-in sensors that measure bending angle and user-applied force while walking. A company in Iceland has already turned this artificial knee into a commercial product. The work is part of an emerging discipline called biomechatronics, in which researchers are building robotic prostheses that can communicate with users' nervous systems. Herr predicts that in 5 to 7 years, spinal-cord injury patients in the research lab will move their limbs again by controlling robotic exoskeletons.