Singapore, July 28 -- A University of Melbourne startup is developing cutting-edge bionic prosthetics, designed to be lighter, easier to fit and more reliable to control than many conventional systems. Almost 24 million people globally live with upper-limb loss, yet access to effective prosthetic arms remains limited.

In high-income countries, only around half of people with upper-limb loss have ever trialled a prosthesis, and 35-40 percent of users ultimately abandon their device, with rejection rates highest among children. In low-income countries, the access gap is even greater, with only 10 percent of people estimated to trial a prosthetic device.

Senior Research Engineer Dr Alireza Mohammadi and his team interviewed 60 amputees, cl...