The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its approval of a robotic arm, dubbed "Luke" after Luke Skywalker of Star Wars, for amputees after acknowledging that the arm can perform multiple, complex movements.

Reuters reported that the US FDA has approved the sale of the DEKA Arm System, a prosthetic arm developed by DEKA Research and Development Corp based in New Hampshire, after a study showed that people who used the device were able to perform multiple tasks.

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These tasks include combing hair, brushing teeth, opening and closing zippers, using keys and locks, and eating, a huge advance over the traditional metal hook that is used by most arm amputees.

The FDA said "Luke" is the first artificial arm that can perform movements controlled by signals from electrodes called electromyogram, which detect electrical activity caused by a person's contracting muscles.

The electrodes then emit signals to a computer processor in the robotic arm. The processor is programmed to perform up to 10 specific movements.

According to Christy Foreman, director of the Office of Device Evaluation at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, the DEKA Arm System allows some people to do more complex tasks than the current prosthetics available in the market. The tasks, she said, more closely resembles the natural movement of the arm.

The robotic arm derived its name from Luke Skywalker, a popular Star Wars character whose hand was cut off while fighting a villain in the 1980 film "The Empire Strikes Back". The movie showed that Luke replaced his injured arm with a robotic prosthetic.

DEKA is founded by Dean Kamen, the same person who invited the Segway and other devices. The robotic arm has the same shape, weight, size and grip strength as a real adult's arm.

The development of the robotic arm received US $40-million funding from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the Pentagon. The agency has allocated a total of US $100 million for a project aimed at improving prosthetics for people who have suffered upper extremity amputations.

Pentagon has allocated the fund for research on prosthetics as more than 1,800 US troops underwent major limb amputations as a result of the injuries they sustained in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

TagsRobotic Arm, Star Wars Robotic Arm, US FDA Robotic Arm, Darpa Robotic Arm