Cheap Exoskeleton Brings Iron Man to Life, in the Arm at Least [Science]

Iron Man (2008) Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) with Exoskeleton Arm

Move over Tony Stark. Students at the University of Pennsylvania have
won a prize for developing an inexpensive, powered, upper body
exoskeleton.

A super-strong exoskeleton has been the dream of science fiction for decades. From the “Turbo-loader” in Aliens toIron Man’s exo-suit men have dreamed of wearing a suit that amplifies their strength.

The James Dyson award is an annual international competition for university-level engineering
students that challenges them to “design something that solves a
problem.” The award granted the student team £30,000 ($49,157.93) and
£10,000 ($16,384.44) to
the university department for further development and research. They
also get a shiny trophy. The runners-up were for a cheap prosthetic
hand called “Handie,” and a 3-D-printed plastic cast system called “Cortex.”

Sure, exoskeletons exist right now. But most exoskeletons today are
wildly expensive and cost more than $100,000. This team created “Titan Arm
” for less than $2,000.  Another drawback current exoskeletons have is
they’re bulky and use heavy wires to transmit information. The Titan
Arm is lightweight, streamlined and wireless. It also enhances the
user’s strength by 40 pounds. It’s not much, but it’s a huge boon for
someone that’s disabled.

The students developed the arm working closely with physicians to make
an untethered, powered, upper body exoskeleton for use in with medical
rehabilitation and therapeutic application. It can also be used in jobs
where there’s repetitive motion or heavy lifting. While the device
currently augments the strength of the user by 40lbs, if the guy were Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson or Vin Diesel he could lift some impressive weights. Of course, all that muscle would look less impressive under the equipment.

You can watch a video talking about it here and dream of the future.

This could be a huge benefit in amputee therapy as well, which is a
growing problem in places like West Africa where “rebels” regularly cut
off hands and feet and money for prosthetics are limited. Even in this
country exoskeletons aren’t covered by health insurance.

The possibilities of the Titan Arm are endless. Imagine an episode of Iron Chef,
where the chefs actually look like Iron Man. Not to mention
arm-wrestling competitions would become a whole lot more interesting. Read more about the project at http://titanarm.com.

Via Discovery

What do you think of the Titan Arm? What would you do with an super-strong exoskeleton?

Please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post. Click on the links to follow us for free by Email, RSS and follow us on Twitter @thegeektwins and like us on Facebook

Follow @Thegeektwins