Suit Up With a Robot to Walk and Run More Easy

[upnorth]

Content source

https://wyss.harvard.edu/suit-up-with-a-robot-to-walk-and-run-more-easily/

As reported today in Science, a team of researchers at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the University of Nebraska Omaha now has developed a portable exosuit that assists with gait-specific hip extension during both walking and running.

Their lightweight exosuit is made of textile components worn at the waist and thighs, and a mobile actuation system attached to the lower back which is controlled by an algorithm that can robustly detect the transition from walking to running and vice versa.

The team first showed that the exosuit worn by users in treadmill-based indoor tests, on average, reduced their metabolic costs of walking by 9.3% and of running by 4% compared to when they were walking and running without the device. “We were excited to see that the device also performed well during uphill walking, at different running speeds and during overground testing outside, which showed the versatility of the system,” said Conor Walsh, Ph.D., who led the study. Walsh is a Core Faculty member of the Wyss Institute, the Gordon McKay Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS, and Founder of the Harvard Biodesign Lab. “While the metabolic reductions we found are modest, our study demonstrates that it is possible to have a portable wearable robot assist more than just a single activity, helping to pave the way for these systems to become ubiquitous in our lives,” said Walsh.

 

[show-Zi]

In the future, I think that such technology will support the physical weakness associated with human aging.

 

[plat]

Though the potential for atrophic and paralyzed people is enormous and powerful, how would one react if he/she saw something like this prototype in person instead of on YouTube? Would you laugh?

Honestly, I couldn't handle the intense will of the human spirit to simply MOVE, a concept the rest of us don't give much of a passing thought to and simply take for granted. I fervently hope someday, an "affordable" exo-suit like the above will be controlled autonomously, only by the wearer and by AI. No stranger needs to know your business.

 

[show-Zi]

I think it would be ideal for such supporters to use only a few assistive digital technologies.