Exoskeleton for legs
MIT researchers are demonstrating a new robotic exoskeleton leg system that takes the weight off your back when carrying a heavy pack. In recent experiments, they've demonstrated that the contraption can take 80 percent of the load of an 80 pound backpack. The current prototype apparently screws with your natural walking gait, but they're hoping to tweak the design to enable a normal stride. The research was led by professor Hugh Herr, a double amputee whose pioneering research in the Media Lab's Biomechatronics Group is focused on new prosthetic devices. From the MIT News Office:
LinkExoskeleton devices could boost the weight that a person can carry, lessen the likelihood of leg or back injury and reduce the perceived level of difficulty of carrying a heavy load.
The person wearing the exoskeleton places his or her feet in boots attached to a series of tubes that run up the leg to the backpack, transferring the weight of the backpack to the ground. Springs at the ankle and hip and a damping device at the knee allow the device to approximate the walking motion of a human leg, with a very small external power input (one watt).
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From the piece it seems like the exoskeleton in question is connected to the Nets ?-)
The boots are attached to "a series of tubes"? Didn't we do this meme already?
Ah well, break a leg.
I'm not really fussed whether Boingboing is one site or split into two with the new gadgets section, but why have the two parts if this and the Japanese Bubble-wrap toy are in this section?
The exoskeleton belongs here because it's a series of tubes.
Interesting, but how is this different/better/worse than the HAL 5 exoskeleton currently being used in Japan?
This reminds me of a project from a lab at Tsukuba University near Tokyo.
http://sanlab.kz.tsukuba.ac.jp/english/r_hal.php
Their HAL-5 robotic suit / exoskeleton suit was on display at the World Expo last year.
An older version was covered in a 2005 New Scientist article:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18624945.800.html
Have you seen the quote...
"Our dream is that 20 years from now, people won't go to bike racks--they'll go to leg racks,"
Leave it to MIT to try to make the wheel obsolete.
Just don't wear it to the airport.
This is great -- one step closer to the powered exoskeleton I've always wanted.
Looks similar to Paul MacCready's Technalegs. Google turned up a few snippets about them, including a picture on page 26 of this presentation
http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/library/meetings/annual/oct05/MacCready_Paul.pdf