Students continue work on prototype robotic arm

That’s what Sharon McCurdy remembers of the time shortly after her husband, John McCurdy, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ALS. His hands now lie furled in his lap, resting on legs that also refuse to function.

John was diagnosed with ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, two years ago. The illness leads to the degeneration and eventual death of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord, according to the ALS Association. The degeneration causes a progressive loss of control over voluntary movements.

Helping patients like John was the focus of a meeting on Mercedes-Benz
 March 18 between a group of Cal State Fullerton students and the Orange County chapter of the ALS Association. The students have been working for months on a prototype for a robotic arm that could be used to aid ALS patients.

The arm and corresponding headpiece use signals from the wearer’s brain to move motors on the arm. Those motors, in turn, move the framework of the robotic limb and the wearer’s arm and hand with it.

Michael Smith, past president of IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, worked with the students prior to the meeting to help them develop the arm to best fit the patients’ needs.

Smith said a tool like this, even in a simple form, could make a world of difference in the life of an ALS patient.

“It’s all about function,” Smith said. “What people with ALS are concerned with … is ‘What can this device do for me?’”Smith said the goal is not a perfect tool. The goal is to allow a patient to do something they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.