Jon can feed himself again with his assistive robotic arm

Military veteran Jon can feed himself again for the first time in 17 years, with help from an assistive robotic arm

Former Paratrooper Jon was badly injured in a road traffic accident in 2003, which left him as a C4 tetraplegic. He can now feed himself for the first time in 17 years with an assistive robotic arm.

Prior to this new assistive technology, Jon’s spinal cord injury meant that his sole, very limited control of his daily life was through a chin-operated joystick on his electric wheelchair, Jon was left feeling like a “talking mouth with no purpose”, he even avoided seeing friends. However, the new assistive robotic arm is giving him a new independent lease of life.

The device features 6-axis movement corresponding to shoulder, elbow, and wrist, allowing 16 movements in all to mimic the smoothness and versatility of a fully functioning human arm. It is mounted onto Jon’s electric wheelchair, and he is able to take full control with a chin-operated joystick. The arm can also be used through a wide variety of other adaptive interfaces.

Military veteran Jon Noble is only the second person in the UK to own a JACO robotic arm, thanks to funding from various military charities, including Blesma, The Limbless Veterans Charity. 

 “I gave up all control over my life 17 years ago. The JACO arm will mean I have more choice over my own life and it is going to help me reengage in life and interact. I can start to see things opening up again for me now.”

The JACO assistive robotic arm was recently supplied and installed by Rahana Life, who are experts in technologies that enable people to have limited or no use of their arms to regain arm function. The robotic arm was developed by Kinova in Montreal, Canada and is not currently available on the NHS.

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The details…

This story was provided to us by Blesma, The Limbless Veterans Jon uses a  JACO Assistive Robotic Arm, view the details here. This product can be found in this Living made Easy Category: Eating Support Systems.  

You can find out more about Blesma, The Limbless Veterans and more on Jon's story here.

The DLF was not paid to feature this story. 

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