Robert W. Mann, 81; Engineer Helped Invent Braille Print Machine

Robert W. Mann, 81, a mechanical engineer and designer who helped create a Braille printing machine and advanced prosthetic joints, died of a heart attack June 16 in Moultonborough, N.H.

An early practitioner in the field of rehabilitation engineering, Mann began guiding students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1950s.

Mann and others at MIT worked on a computer program for translating English text into Braille in the 1960s and ‘70s. The program was part of a larger project to develop a computer-directed Braille-embossing machine to give the blind quicker access to printed material. The result was a device called MIT Braillemboss that printed efficiently and has seen broad use.

Mann and his students also produced a folding cane that was a low-technology solution to a formidable problem for the blind: how to stow a cane quickly when entering a car or other vehicle. He also helped design a complex prosthetic elbow that became known as the Boston arm; it joined an electromechanical device with remnant muscle tissue to enable amputees to perform a lifting action.