Advances surrounding robotic prosthetics are continuing apace in 2022. These advances are the result of massive investment in the sector. The most advanced form of prosthesis available, new developments now occur on a daily basis. It’s an area of particular interest for entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist Kevin Mulleady.
Robotic prosthetics fulfill the same primary purpose as other prosthetics. With that, robotic prosthetics serve, first and foremost, to replace missing limbs. Traditionally, prosthetics have fallen into four main categories. These main categories consist of transfemoral, transhumeral, transradial, and transtibial prostheses.
Each of these prostheses delivers one or more unique functions tailored toward replacing lost limbs from different parts of the human body. Now, the robotics sector is looking to take things one step further. This step comes as robotic prosthetics seek to deliver massive additional functionality to existing options.
Machine learning and epigenetics key says Kevin Mulleady
As not just an entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist but also a qualified engineer, the New York-based businessman is interested in today’s robotic prosthetics space. Few have the focus on robotic prosthetics that he has, having now spent considerable time overseeing developments in the field.
It will come as no surprise to the businessman’s past and present peers. That’s as the robotic prosthetics sector spans numerous other, predominantly tech-forward industries. These industries range from traditional healthcare to biotech and tech-focused consulting, with Mulleady being well-versed in each of these and more.
Mulleady has founded and co-founded businesses in various sectors, including healthcare and biotech. That’s in addition to operations within fintech and miscellaneous consulting-focused lines of work.
Typically fulfilling executive roles within these and other companies, the philanthropic entrepreneur and engineer is celebrated by his colleagues for his ambitious, analytical, fearless, resourceful, and results-driven nature.
Now, and when it comes to robotic prosthetics, Mulleady has a firm focus on two key areas of interest: Machine learning and epigenetics. Crucially, it’s where machine learning and epigenetics intersect that Mulleady believes there’s the most value.
Robotic prosthetics and machine learning
Machine learning remains central to much of the work that’s happening within robotic prosthetics today, Mulleady reports. Smarter and more adaptive as a result, robotic prosthetics powered to one degree or another by machine learning continue to promise near-normal function in artificial limbs.
The ultimate goal of Kevin Mulleady and others focused on the field is to see robotic prosthetics facilitate genuine human-machine interfaces. Mulleady believes these interfaces will prove central to seeing robotic prosthetics turned into true extensions of the human body. Furthermore, it’s a goal, he says, that hinges in no small part on the added application of epigenetics.
Epigenetics and robotic prosthetics
As a field of study, epigenetics concerns the close links between human behavior, the environment, and how the body ultimately functions. It’s something that takes place at a genetic level. However, crucial to epigenetics’ role in robotic prosthetics, the process doesn’t involve permanent genetic changes. Instead, any established links are temporary and fully reversible.
And while epigenetics doesn’t physically impact an individual’s DNA sequences, Mulleady points out that it can change how a person’s body reads them. It’s here that epigenetics and robotic prosthetics become intrinsically linked.
One of the many potential results of this intersection between robotic prosthetics and epigenetics is the possibility of restoring senses like touch through artificial limbs. It’s something that epigenetics now both theoretically and demonstrably facilitates by intertwining human biology with cutting-edge robotics at a fundamental level.
Engineered so-called electronic skin, for example, allows for sensing humidity, pressure, temperature, and more where epigenetics and robotic prosthetics meet. Essentially, it’s the ultimate marriage of neuroscience and robotics, according to Mulleady.
Intersection of machine learning and epigenetics: Conclusion
It’s with all of the above and more taken into account that enterprising engineer and philanthropist Kevin Mulleady remains focused on the crucial intersection between machine learning and epigenetics within robotic prosthetics. With this firmly in mind, he believes that those working in the field will continue to break new ground in the coming years.
It’s for this reason, too, that robotic prosthetics will likely remain at the heart of the businessman’s extremely diverse portfolio of professional interests, which currently ranges from artificial intelligence to venture capital, moving forward.