Slashdot Mirror
Powered Exoskeleton Legs
dyoo78 writes "Berkeley Engineers have come up with an ingenious mechanism that almost mimics, well, Borg technology. Developed by UC Berkeley's Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory, the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton (BLEEX) consists of mechanical metal leg braces that are connected rigidly to the user at the feet, and, in order to prevent abrasion, more compliantly elsewhere. The device includes a power unit and a backpack-like frame used to carry a large load. This development bring to the forefront the ability to not only carry large loads in wartime efforts, but may possibly help people with limited muscle ability to walk optimally."
Steven Hawking has been using this technology for years!
i, for one, welcome our robotically enabled masters!
I wasn't sure story to read first, the borg technology or MS assimilating (giving money to) SCO. But they sounded similar, so I went ahead with latter one. :)
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
Yes, Berkeley-ites! With our patented "Hippie Assist" functionality, you can flee the tyranny of pepper-spray-wielding police at up to three times the speed! And the titanium-alloy supports allow you to carry up to SIX times as many picket sign bearing snappy slogans!
Worry no more as you march around protesting the cause of the day, as you can taunt the pigs with impunity!
(Hemp-shoe compatibility guaranteed!)
Yeah, it only takes a slight bug in the software and this thing will break both your legs in a second.
Exoskeletons have been designed before, but no-one dared try them on for just this reason.
Add on robotic arms, and we'll be ready to fight off alien queens and throw them out airlocks.
/sig
Does it run Linux? If so, I'm afraid of it. I wouldn't want a malicious penguin taking over control.
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
Woooowwwwwzzeerrrrrrsssssss!!!!!!
Carrying heavy loads in wartime?
Bush wants his soldiers to carry back the oil a barrel at a time.
Trolling is a art,
They're robo-trousers, ex-NASA!
I love the photo of the guy wearing it. Let's put Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis in that get-up and see if it looks familiar. Who you gonna call?
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
It's the wrong trousers!
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
This is great -- it senses your motions and accomodates you, helping you along:
/. article a few months ago about a Japanese team of researchers who were working on the same sort of device (I don't recall the name, but I'm sure the dupe-hounds will point it out). But if I recall correctly, that system required control imput, such as from a joystick-like device. That limits the robusteness and usability pretty severely, IMHO.
The researchers point out that the human pilot does not need a joystick, button or special keyboard to "drive" the device. Rather, the machine is designed so that the pilot becomes an integral part of the exoskeleton, thus requiring no special training to use it. In the UC Berkeley experiments, the human pilot moved about a room wearing the 100-pound exoskeleton and a 70-pound backpack while feeling as if he were lugging a mere 5 pounds.
There was a
Interestingly, this thing runs on a gas engine (which powers hydraulics for the powered joints and provides electricity for the computer controls), and:
The current prototype allows a person to travel over flat terrain and slopes, but work on the exoskeleton is ongoing, with the focus turning to miniaturization of its components. The UC Berkeley engineers are also developing a quieter, more powerful engine, and a faster, more intelligent controller, that will enable the exoskeleton to carry loads up to 120 pounds within the next six months. In addition, the researchers are studying what it takes to enable pilots to run and jump with the exoskeleton legs.
I want my robot body now please. Price?
everything in moderation
Took nearly 2 minutes to download, but watching those short steps around... then finding out that the backpack was loaded with 100lbs.... wow.
Obviously the future of movement and an important first step, no pun intended.
So we've got a unit that can carry up to 120lbs of weight. Figure a few more lbs and it may now be able to 'support' a man whos legs no longer work properly. Although this design is based upon feedback from a proper leg to calculate where it is supposed to move/balance.
The old quote about the yellow pages- let your fingers do the walking- may soon become far more true than you've realized... especially for those born or brought to wheelchair bound.
I'm sure it wouldn't be too tricky to put physical or electrical limits on the exoskeleton to prevent it from moving into a position that the human body can't. I seriously doubt it'd be a big problem.
I'd be worried about the centre of gravity on this thing. From the picture, things don't look too good. Sure, the person can carry a huge load. But that load is all on his back, with some of it a foot or more away from his body. If he tips over will the legs be any help getting him upright?
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
No, it uses a free piston hydraulic pump that runs off catalyzed hydrogen preoxide. Actually quite small and light for the power it provides.
"That's not ironic, it's just mean!" - Bender
...to having technology seen only in science fiction stories happen right in front of our eyes.
This technology could easily make it possible for soldiers to carry very heavy armor that could possibly protect them from most all small arms fire and possibly even some heavy fire. All the while carrying heavy machine guns and small autoloading cannons that these days require crews to move and operate.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
"the wearer can walk, squat, bend and swing from side to side without noticeable reductions in agility."
But can he LIMBO!
And you know that a cheat for Dance Dance Revolution will make the rounds, too...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
- You have the leg strength to break your own leg and do so by resisting a machine movement.
- The machine is designed so that it can manouver so as to break a leg. The machine should have a physically limited range of motion which does not exceed the wearers!
So I would have no problem wearing an exoskeleton, if it was designed not to be able to break the human body inside, if it isn'tNever underestimate the dark side of the Source
This suit enhances strength and load-bearing capability. The jet-shoes enhanced speed alone. There was no back brace or luggage compartment - just big-ass loud shoes :)
Then again, there was the spring-loaded running suit those guys made. It retained almost as much energy running as a Kangaroo (one of the most efficient runners on the world). With it, people could run really fast and jump high, all without power. True, it was massive and you'd look a dick wearing it, but technologically fantastic.
the first steps in producing the powered armor of RAH's "Starship Troopers".
I found it interesting to use the term "Pilot" for the user/wearer - especially in light that the exoskeleton is designed to be used with apparently little training.
It's nice to see that we are taking the first steps (excuse the pun) to fight back after space insects destroy Buenos Aires.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
All they have to do is make sure it can only move in the same directions and extents as a human. Once that's achieved, it can't possibly break your legs off. After all, it's enhancing existing human motions, not inventing new ones.
is to get this developed to the point where it could replace a wheelchair. The psychological advantage to a person who'd lost the use of his legs to actually stand up and interact with the world "eye to eye" would have to be powerful. It probably also doesn't hurt to keep the muscles moving and the appropriate neural pathways firing.
Yea, I know, long way to get there from here, but it's a promising first step. Certainly worth some research dollars in my opinion.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
So I would have no problem wearing an exoskeleton, if it was designed not to be able to break the human body inside, if it isn't ... who the hell designed it?
The same people who brought you the mail client that could execute binary code without user intervention, naturally!
Beep beep.
The article neglected the real reason for designing it. The guy shown in the picture is an engineering student, and the backpack is full of electrical engineering textbooks. He's trying to make his life easier.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
The video clearly showed that the power pack this device currently
needs is so heavy that a guy wearing the skeleton+power pack looks
the way I do when I carry 30+ kilos and no exoskeleton! In other words,
he would be much better off if he left the exoskeleton+power back
behind, and carried on using natural power only.
As with a lot of other cool devices, the really big problem is the need
for compact, efficient, lightweight power sources.
They currently don't exist.
How do you figure one could quickly, easily and tracelessly hack a system whose only accessible inputs are things like pressure sensors?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
"The fundamental technology developed here can also be developed to help people with limited muscle ability to walk optimally"
Having just broken my ankle recently, I could see how - if priced right - this technology would be great for patients recovering from leg injuries.
I'm wondering how well it actually supports the legs. Assumedly, one could splint or cast the broken part of the leg/ankle/etc, and allow the mechanics to take weight off the broken areas.
Even if it weren't useful for an actual break, it would definately be great for the recovery process. I'm getting my cast off tomorrow, but I can see that my muscle atrophied rather quickly. 5 weeks, and my once well-formed muscles are now rather thin (the other leg got a lot stronger though).
An exoskeleton would assist the weak muscles, while the movement should force movement which would strengthen them over time. I'd go for one if I could get it!
This was invented by Robert A. Heinlein in the book Starship Troopers!
Looks like Mr. Heinlein has done it again. He predicted more then a half century ago that the interface for a an exoskelton (which is what the powered armour in ST is) would be through a force feedback system, shere the suit reads human movement and then reacts to it. Thus very little special training is required to use the powered suit, or exoskelton.
Robert A. Heinlein was also the guy that invented the water bed.
So, the engineers finally played this game and decided that it can't be that hard to actually build a machine like that.
:)
On a serious note, that's what this is on the way too. Someone above mentioned that this will enable soldiers to carry very heavy armour that can protect them from most small firearms. Soon, there will be arm exoskeletons and then after that we'll have complete exoskeletons, and at some point, the machines will end up looking like the Mechwarrior machines with missiles and automatic machine guns.
Though it would be nice to think of the possibilities on a humane side. Helping people who've lost the ability to walk, to walk again. But that not what provides the money (the large amounts needed to really propell this). This should make basketball actually watchable again
"Time is long and life is short, so begin to live while you still can." -EV
The article starts out with a statement of how terrible it would be to haul around a 70 lb pack. That was considered a light load when I was in the Special Forces. Double that capacity and you'll have something the Army might be really interested in.
Read any good sonnets lately?
That would be the engine and hydraulic pump I'd presume.
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
Short of it being used for a Burningman Project, I think it's life is over. (Sniff...)
"Don't fear death... fear not living..." -me
The side with that technology, thus cutting down considerably on the losses of your armed forces or the side that this technology would be used to defend against?
Personally, one would imagine that faced with the possibility of fighting such a foe that most governments would most likely reconsider any potentially hostile activity towards such an equipped government.
Of course, such is the march of human progress. One could argue forever that military forces and armed conflict do nothing but ill for all of humanity, yet at the same time someone else can point out the near endless series of side benefits that have been brought to humanity because of humanity's propensity towards killing eachother.
For instance, the computers that you and I are both sitting in front are the progeny of now 'ancient' military computer systems built during WWII. We may never have had RADAR systems developed if not for war. Same goes with rocket and jet engine technology...
Sure, war sucks. Sure, people die from armed conflict. However, without war, we would most assuredly not have the technology that we have today as artists, philosophers and pacifists aren't as prone to push forward the march of technology as much as those that have been put into desperate situations that need a radical new way of thinking to achieve a goal do.
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Had an extensive article on full body exoskeletons VERY remeniscent of the kit ripley wore in aliens...
/. over 30 who hasn't suffered from terminal alzheimers....
The article included actual photographs of actual working (though tethered by hoses to a static power pack) units that were being developed by/for the US Army.
I cannot remember the axact issue or year because I was a mere sprog and my dad used to buy the occassional pop mechanics, but it was early sixties.
This was 45 years ago people....
Please don't tell me I'm the only fart on
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
I've only managed to download the first two videos so maybe it shows in the third, but I wonder if this thing can let the "pilot" stand still with the 100lb bag on his back. You can see the kid kinda throwing his hands out for balance once in a while. For some reason I imagine standing still and balancing the weight would be a lot harder for the machine to interpret and more difficult for the kid to balance than the walking.
Moderation: +1 pwnage
Excuse me while I shamelessly try to attach myself to work that I can take no credit for.
Professor Kazerooni was my Masters Advisor while at Berkeley in 96-97. His lab is filled with completed and partially completed robotic mechanisms. He and his students have been working on things like this for years. Just to give you an idea of the advancements, check out the arms and legs of his Electric Power Extender. These things are a lot closer to any Mech than the BLEEX. Then again, these things were attached to several Pentium era PCs and several LARGE wall mounted power racks. The reduction in size is remarkable. Imagine walking into the lab and seeing these big, shiny, robotic legs hanging in the middle of the room for the first time. It is a very cool "oooh" and "ahh" experience.
I'm a little disappointed that the project I and others worked on is not on his main page. Oh well.
Nothing to see here.