Pop culture has pummeled us with images of human-piloted, missile-launching Megazords, or gigantic Halo-style armor that make people look like army tanks with limbs. But in reality, near-future exoskeletons will likely sport as little hardware as possible, and will instead be unobtrusive and softer.
Today, exoskeletons tend to look like leg braces with a bunch of wires on them. Considering the powered wearables are chiefly designed for combat forces or injured patients stripped of motor skills or neurological ability, you can see how being outfitted in an unwieldy alien fistfighter is unideal.
“I prefer that the enemy wears something huge, not our soldiers—large exoskeletons are constraining,” says Professor Homayoon Kazerooni, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “They can’t do anything in it.”
Kazerooni’s worked with exoskeletons at Berkeley for over 20 years. He has over 50 patents under his belt, and developed such exos as BLEEX, a DARPA-funded lower body device that helps disaster relief responders, soldiers, or emergency workers schlep cumbersome loads over changing terrain. Another one of his credits: HULC, a titanium-legged military wearable that carries 200-pound loads and is licensed by Lockheed Martin.
Scientists are now working on simplifying exoskeleton design: These suits need to soup up their users, but also grant flexibility and freedom. “The whole idea of making a big machine, like Iron Man, is pretty much old now. Maybe it looks good on a screen, but in reality we want something minimal,” Kazerooni says.
The soft Harvard suit is one early example of this. Another was unveiled earlier this month, by Japanese robot maker Cyberdyne (a familiar face on the exo scene—no relation to the diabolical corporation in Terminator).
They’re the ones who brought us Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL (below).Cyberdyne used the same tech to create this robotic suit that elderly bank employees can use when picking up heavy stacks of cash or bank notes. It can reduce the effort to lift a heavy load by 40 percent, yet the suit looks more like an elaborate seat than a hulking machine.
Pop culture has pummeled us with images of human-piloted, missile-launching Megazords, or gigantic Halo-style armor that make people look like army tanks with limbs. But in reality, near-future exoskeletons will likely sport as little hardware as possible, and will instead be unobtrusive and softer.Today, exoskeletons tend to look like leg braces with a bunch of wires on them. Considering the powered wearables are chiefly designed for combat forces or injured patients stripped of motor skills or neurological ability, you can see how being outfitted in an unwieldy alien fistfighter is unideal.“I prefer that the enemy wears something huge, not our soldiers—large exoskeletons are constraining,” says Professor Homayoon Kazerooni, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “They can’t do anything in it.”Kazerooni’s worked with exoskeletons at Berkeley for over 20 years. He has over 50 patents under his belt, and developed such exos as BLEEX, a DARPA-funded lower body device that helps disaster relief responders, soldiers, or emergency workers schlep cumbersome loads over changing terrain. Another one of his credits: HULC, a titanium-legged military wearable that carries 200-pound loads and is licensed by Lockheed Martin.Scientists are now working on simplifying exoskeleton design: These suits need to soup up their users, but also grant flexibility and freedom. “The whole idea of making a big machine, like Iron Man, is pretty much old now. Maybe it looks good on a screen, but in reality we want something minimal,” Kazerooni says.The soft Harvard suit is one early example of this. Another was unveiled earlier this month, by Japanese robot maker Cyberdyne (a familiar face on the exo scene—no relation to the diabolical corporation in Terminator).They’re the ones who brought us Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL (below).Cyberdyne used the same tech to create this robotic suit that elderly bank employees can use when picking up heavy stacks of cash or bank notes. It can reduce the effort to lift a heavy load by 40 percent, yet the suit looks more like an elaborate seat than a hulking machine.
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..