Brain-controlled robot hand with sense of touch helps Medal of Honor recipient

Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Leroy Petry (Ret.) lost his hand after picking up a hand grenade to save the lives of his fellow soldiers.

“It was instinct,” he told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Monday. “I had an unwritten promise to bring them home.”

A few years later, Petry is using a robotic prosthetic hand that he says is just “like having the original equipment” except it can rotate 360 degrees, screws off and is way smarter.

“This is actually a conversation starter,” he said.

“Basically it’s the same thought process of opening and closing my normal hand. There’s a couple of sensors inside the prosthetic cast that sense muscle movement and send a signal to the hand. So I just think about opening and closing and if I want to spin it in either direction. And I just think about bending my wrist,” he explained.

According to Petry, the hand is so precise, “you can pick up a grape without squashing it.”

“You can pick up just about anything. It has a precision pinch mode you can go into. You can hold a mouse. Click on a mouse,” he explained.

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Petry also said the hand is designed with agility and “stops when it meets resistance in each finger” – in other words—he can shake people’s hands too.

It also comes with an app and software that allows him to check on his health through his phone, he said.