Humans could soon be wearing robot tentacles, thumbs and wings

Humans could soon be equipped with robot wings or tentacles, a Cambridge scientist has suggested. 

Scientists have already developed a “Third Thumb”, which sits on a person’s hand opposite a real thumb controlled by two foot pedals, as part of efforts to develop smarter prosthetics for people with disabilities. 

Dani Clode invented the third thumb system in 2021, and showcased it at an event last year where The Telegraph proved that it could be used to hold, and sip respectfully from, a full wine glass.

Now, Tamar Makin, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Cambridge University, is hoping to build on the early success by developing appendages that can be used as extra body parts. 

Prof Makin said it was possible “from a technical perspective” to design wings or tentacles for human application.

“The technologies are out there, we just need to scale them,” she said.

“There are technological issues to deal with. For example, you want it to be wearable, comfortable, it can’t be heavy and it can’t be plugged into an electric socket.

“But control is the real issue. Wings are actually really simple because it’s just one degree of freedom – up and down.

“But when you’re doing something more complicated, like a tentacle, we need a lot of control.

“For example, if you want to reach your cup of coffee because it is far away, you want to use your tentacle.

“But if you really need to focus because it’s a really complicated task, then just standing up would be less disruptive.”

A study of 20 people using the third thumb saw them trained on it over five days to pick up balls and various other dextrous feats.

A pad under each big toe, embedded in a shoe, was used to control the gadget and transmitted wireless signals to the thumb, which was strapped to the operator’s hand.

Writing in the journal Science Robotics, the team said participants also increasingly felt like the thumb was a part of their own body.

Participants also had their brains scanned and this revealed subtle but distinct changes in neural circuitry.

The big question, Prof Makin said, is: “How do you control a body part you’ve never had before?”

She added: “Evolution hasn’t prepared us to use an extra body part, and we have found that to extend our abilities in new and unexpected ways, the brain will need to adapt the representation of the biological body.”

Since designing the third thumb system, Miss Clode has now designed a robotic, coiling tentacle that acts as a prosthetic arm

Named “Vine 2.0”, it has 26 individual vertebrae that are controlled by the wearer with pressure sensors and electronics in shoes.

Silvestro Micera, from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced studies in Pisa, is also working on a third arm that is attached to the body around the waist and controlled by breathing.

The researchers will discuss their advances in augmentation at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington.