Adrianne Haslet – Davis was devastated to lose  her left leg below the knee as a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013. The loss was felt severely by her as she was a professional ballroom dancer. However thanks to Hugh Herr and his biomechatronics team at MIT she is now able to dance again.

Hugh himself is a double amputee and has designed Adrianne’s robotic prosthetic leg in a highly unconventional manner. It has a number of sensors that react to speed, torque, and position by either stiffening or relaxing her robotic ankle allowing her to maintain the flow in her dancing.

It is important scientific research that Hugh conducts as he designs each individual robotic leg that are optimized for running and walking. Hugh hopes to produce intelligent prosthetic limbs that can change under different conditions just like a real bionic limb would. They will be nothing like the stiff precursors that amputees have had to use so far.

As far as Adrianne is concerned, the new robotic prosthetic limb has given her more courage to try out new things. She felt victorious even before she could walk back on stage and is much more fearless than she was before.