EDMONTON — Two years ago Rob Anderson’s arm and leg were sliced off by helicopter rotors in a horrific crash south of Grande Prairie.

Shortly after takeoff, the chopper was hit by shifting post-storm winds and spun out of control. One of the rotors hit the ground and ripped off half the machine along with Anderson’s limbs.

Since that fateful day the 31-year-old wildfire ranger and father of two has held the same outlook — live in the moment.

“With having my accident and injuries, it’s kind of just, ‘be happy with what you can do right now — don’t make too many plans because you don’t want to be disappointed,’ ” he said Thursday from Edmonton’s Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital.

Anderson recently became one of the first Canadians to receive a Targeted Muscle Reinnervation procedure or neuro-controlled bionic arm.

The cutting-edge prosthetic limb essentially allows amputees to move their fake arm like a real one.

Researchers are hailing the development as the best advancement in upper-limb prosthetics since the Second World War when rehabilitation specialists began fitting amputees with hooks.

“If I want to reach out and open my hand to grab something, it just happens,” explained Dr. Jackie Hebert, clinical director of the adult amputee program at the Glenrose and an assistant professor at the University of Alberta.

“Our brain tells our muscles to do that automatically. So our goal is to get our patients to that level where they’re thinking, ‘I want to reach out and pick up that cup,’ and the prosthetic device just automatically does that.

“Up to this time an amputee has had to go, ‘OK, I need to pull on this cable. I need to move my shoulder.’ It doesn’t make any sense to them. What this technology means is that they can actually just think those thoughts and have that prosthesis respond naturally.”

Anderson’s wife — a physical therapist in Grande Prairie — hopes the new arm will help with everyday tasks.

“He’s only had the arm for two days,” Sophie Anderson said.

“It’s just taking the arm home to see what (he) can do. Can I cut up my steak with that hand? Can I open a bottle of water without squishing it closed? Can I do up the buttons on my shirt?”

The device, initially developed at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, is fitted after a surgery that rewires the amputee’s nerves to remaining muscle in the arm or chest.

Actually, patients may soon have a shelf full of cutting-edge prosthetics to choose from.

Science Daily, an online news site dedicated to science news, reported on a team led by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., that has developed a prototype of the first fully integrated prosthetic arm that can be controlled naturally, provide sensory feedback and allows for eight degrees of freedom—a level of control far beyond the current state of the art for prosthetic limbs.

Their new arm, named Proto 1, is a complete limb system that also includes a virtual environment used for patient training, clinical configuration, and to record limb movements and control signals during clinical investigations.

The advanced degree of natural control and integrated sensory feedback demonstrated with Proto 1 are enabled by Targeted Muscle Reinnervation (TMR), a technique pioneered by Dr. Todd Kuiken that involves the transfer of residual nerves from an amputated limb to unused muscle regions in appropriate proximity to the injury.

In this case, the nerves were transferred to the pectoral area of the patient’s chest.

This procedure provides for a more intuitive use of a prosthetic arm and allows for the natural sensation of grip strength and touch.

The technology to replace arms and legs can even be applied to people who still have their own.

Science Daily also reported on how the technology that makes a cell phone vibrate is the same technology that provides more natural movements to prosthetic limbs.

A University of Houston research team is working on recreating and enhancing this technological effect, which, if successful, could result in better prosthetic movements and also provide instant electrical power for soldiers and others through the simple act of walking.

Pradeep Sharma, a UH mechanical engineering professor, is leading the team to create a “piezoelectric on steroids.”

Piezoelectricity is the ability of some materials to generate an electric charge when placed under stress.

This technology already is more useful than many people realize. Piezoelectrics are involved in products from making an airbag deploy to allowing your barbecue lighter to produce a flame.

Even if you still have your natural limbs, the technology could be used to make you stronger.

An engineered piezoelectric strip placed in the boot of a soldier would generate electricity and power the increasing number of devices that soldiers carry.

The walking motion produces force or deformation of the strip, which generates electricity with every step.

That power can be used to run strap-on devices to assist people to carry more weight, or to walk further without tiring.

The highly customizable piezoelectrics also could enable the creation of prosthetics that come closer to offering both the flexibility and the strength of real limbs.

Current prosthetic limbs face challenges in range and movement by the two types of naturally occurring piezoelectrics, ceramic and polymer.

“Ceramic piezoelectrics are very hard and brittle, and don’t allow for a lot of movement,” Sharma said. “They take a lot of electrical energy for a lot of motion. Polymers are better for large forces of motion, but don’t have a lot of strength. So, you can stretch adequately, but may not even be able to pick up an egg.

“Nature has given us some elements, and now we’re going beyond and designing materials from the ground up. We wanted to combine the best qualities of the two types of piezoelectrics, among other things.”