Seriously cool exoskeleton called "REX"

zoopydogsit

If you haven't seen this, it is seriously cool!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/16/2956187.htm?section=justin

I was wondering when someone would come up with something like this. Technology is certainly at a point·where we should start to see·more of these kind of things. Considering·the advances in mems accellerometers & gyros, lipo batteries, Servos and processors.·Though it would need some amazingly smart software to handle stairs, slippery surfaces, etc. You'd never have been able to do this with Z80's, Lead Acid batteries, mercury switches and stepper motors! (yikes).

It would be a interesting project for a Prop!·Just using the gyros for ballance, Servos for motion control, maybe·use an accellerometer for surface type detection, foot collision (with steps, etc).·The mechanics wouldn't be cheap, but I could see that it would be do-able.

I'd love to see under the hood!

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It's all a function of time.

pharseid

It's hard to imagine a more worthy application of robotics. I'm reading "Wearable Robots: Biomechatronic Exoskeletons" (I'm only about a quarter of the way through, but I'd recommend it to anybody interested in this area). One of the things they mention is the enormous range of energy consumption between bipedal robots which just implement a naive, statically balanced gait, and those that use a dynamically balanced, rythmic gait where elements are storing and releasing energy (pneumatics I guess). For instance, comparing the MIT bideds with Asimo, Asimo requires an order of magnitude more energy to cover the same distance.

So like you, I'm wondering what's under the hood. The dynamically balanced gait would be more efficient, but the statically balanced gait would seem more safe. As you say, probably pretty expensive to experiment with on a full scale, but maybe on a much reduced scale it·might be doable.

-phar

pharseid

I wonder if they could implement something like a G suit. The suits fighter pilots wear put pressure on the extremities in high G moves to keep blood from accumulating there and causing the pilot to black out.

-phar