With recent technological advances it has become possible to develop advanced artificial limbs for people with disabilities. This report gives a brief history of the field of Rehabilitation Robotics, and then reviews eight currently produced (either experimentally or commercially) robotic devices designed to assist patients with limb loss or in need of skeletal-muscular assistance. After detailing the use and operation of each device, this report assesses each device on the basis of eight criteria: cost, accessibility, maintainability, training, adaptability, safety, environmental concerns and technological possibility. Each device was given a ranking based on those criteria, and on the basis of those rankings, predictions were made as which technologies are most successful today and most likely to be the basis of future development. This report concludes that the technology contained in the I-Limb is the most likely to be enhanced and further developed.

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