In 2005, a shark grabbed the leg of Craig Hutto while he and his brother were out fishing on a sand bar.
"There was just so much tissue gone that the physicians had to choose either life or limb and so that's when they amputated my leg," said bionic leg test patient Craig Hutto.
Unlike the conventional prosthesis for an above knee amputee, the robotic leg allows people to more effectively climb stairs, walk faster using less energy and even run.
Walking upstairs seemed an impossibility for Mr Hutto but the leg has allowed him to scale slopes with more ease.
With power and sense technology, the robotic leg provides the equivalent of muscles to essentially duplicate a healthy limb.
"We look forward to having it improve people's quality of life. Minimising their disability and enabling them to do things that maybe would be difficult for them to do before," said Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University Michael Goldfarb.
This is the only bionic leg prosthesis in the world with a fully powered knee and ankle.
Watch the video for the full story.
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