THE opportunity to be Iron Man has moved closer to reality with a pair of robotic boots.
These these boots were made for walking, and human movement limitations could now be a thing of the past.
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The Biomechatronics Lab of Stanford University created an automated exoskeleton that gives humans motor-powered boosts while they walk, CNET wrote.
Postdoctoral robotics expert Patrick Slade said per the outlet: “This is the real-world Iron Man.
“It’s basically a motorized shoe. … By replacing your calf function with a motor, we can really put a boost in your step and help you walk more easily and more quickly.”
This robo-boot design slides over your sensor-outfitted shoes, and gets attached to the calf muscle with a brace and wires made of carbon fibre.
Motorized assistance helps the behind-calf cable, which is connected to the shoe, reportedly resulting in less effort needed to push off of the ground.
These futuristic physical walking aids are anything but one-size-fits-all.
Instead, they utilize machine learning to understand how the wearer walks, and then customize their assistance to the person’s unique stride.
Biomechatronics Lab has their own “exoskeleton emulators,” which places exoskeltons on treadmills and allow researchers to gather necessary data with building and rebuilding different models, according to CNET.
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Lab lead and Stanford associate mechanical engineering professor said: “You can think about this as like a virtual reality system for your legs.
“We program in the device that we think might help a person, we put on the emulator, they feel what it would be like to walk with that device.
“And then if it helps… we refine the design. If it doesn’t, then we ditch that and try something new.”
After trying out the awe-striking invention (seen here on Stanford’s YouTube), one tester pointed out an unforeseen challenge.
“There was no doubt I got a spring in my step. But the problem with getting used to these exoskeletons wasn’t with the machine — it was with me,” Claire Reilly wrote for CNET.
“My brain made it harder than I thought it would be…my legs and my brain didn’t know what to make of this sudden new assistance.
She even joked: “I felt like Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock when he suddenly forgets how to move like a normal person,” shown in this video.
Slade’s explanation for such phenomena is the fact that human bodies and brains take time to learn; testers typically receive lab training for adjustments, while Reilly was up, up and away in fewer than an hour’s time.
After to boots came off, Reilly said her human legs felt like “dead weight.”
The aim of this research team is to make wearable robotics work for the elderly and mobility-impaired no matter what their needs are.
