What it’s like to wear a prosthetic that ‘feels’

As a biomedical engineer and a practitioner of the Indian classical dance form bharatanatyam, Shriya Srinivasan understands the value of being able to sense the world around you with your entire body. Working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Srinivasan has been part of a team dedicated to creating the next generation of prosthetics limbs, which owners use not only to move, but also to receive sensory feedback. With these emerging surgically attached robotic protheses and exoskeletons, which integrate the signals of muscle tissues and electrodes, Srinivasan and her fellow researchers aim to help those with amputations or paralysis to feel more fully.