Idiobionics: The Unification of Privacy and Intelligent Robotic Prostheses

2026-07-08

AI Summary

This work addresses the dual challenges of privacy leakage and adversarial attacks that accompany the enhanced functionality of intelligent bionic prostheses, which may hinder user adoption. It proposes a novel paradigm termed “Idiobionics,” which for the first time systematically integrates artificial intelligence–based control, advanced sensing, and privacy–security analysis to establish a human–robot symbiotic safety framework tailored for wearable robotics. The study identifies critical threat vectors and adversarial attack pathways specific to such systems and delineates a set of open research challenges. By doing so, it lays a theoretical foundation for achieving privacy-preserving and trustworthy autonomous control in next-generation smart prosthetics.

Abstract

The human body is at the center of a growing family of technologies designed to tightly and persistently couple biological and digital systems. Robotic prostheses are a representative example of this tight coupling. Also referred to as bionic limbs, robotic prostheses are devices that support people who have lost limbs in pursuing daily life activities such as walking and grasping objects. Bionic limbs are now perceptive and responsive owing to their integration with advanced sensors and artificial intelligence-based control approaches. Consequently, such robotic prostheses can now be viewed as semiautonomous wearable robotic systems that can co-adapt with their users. However, the same sensing and control advancements that increase the capability of robotic prostheses also introduce threat vectors that could be exploited by malicious entities to violate the privacy of users. To fully realize the benefits of next-generation bionic limbs, we maintain it is important to directly understand and address these privacy risks and the barriers they might present to user adoption. This paper therefore introduces a new line of inquiry we term idiobionics to holistically investigate issues at the intersection of privacy and intelligent bionic limbs. As the main contribution of this paper, we define idiobionics, ground it in related literature, and provide preliminary evidence showing and discussing potential adversarial attacks that could exploit intelligent bionic limb designs. We then contribute a curated list of open research questions within idiobionics that are relevant to researchers in wearable robotics and other human-facing autonomous systems. We expect that idiobionics research will help unlock the full potential of robotic prostheses and related bionic devices.

Problem

• privacy
• robotic prostheses
• bionic limbs
• adversarial attacks
• human-robot interaction

Innovation

• idiobionics
• privacy
• intelligent prostheses
• adversarial attacks
• wearable robotics