Robotic Knee Helps Perfectly Healthy Runners Run Even Better

Infantry. Run farther, faster, on less effort is exactly what the military wants to do. This enables greater mobility with a more effective fighting force on arrival.

Seconded, the military would totally be into this. Maybe not for the regular army or marines, but definitely elite forces that put a premium on mobility and carrying large amounts of ordinance on each person. I'm thinking the navy seals and airborne rangers.

I concur... in my paratrooper days something like this would been excellent for that mile run off the DZ. There is some serious military application here.

Run Forrest, run!

I want one, how mutch ?

Great. How fast can you get it off to scramble around in a firefight?

D'u know how tired was when I did move last time?
I had to carry my fridge 4 floors down, then 2 floors up.

Epikurosz

Sorry, but I can't see how the extra help with bending your knee will offset the extra weight of the battery. The weight will affect all your muscles, from shoulders to toes, while this assistance will move your knee (now hurting from the weight) easier. Good ideas, and great experience, but assistance with power, such as lifting (i.e. deadlifts), would seem more reasonable/useful.

It's too bad there aren't more lower extremity amputees in the world, a knee that can actually lift the weight of the person using it, and do so fast enough to run, would help me to feel less useless in a world that consistently fires me for medical reasons.

If I'm not mistaken, DARPA is already working on an "exoskeleton" suit that is agile, very strong and actually well designed. The only catch, obviously, is making it portable. At the moment, it's tethered to a power cable feeding the hungry motors and servos that make the wearer capable of lifting twice/three times his own body weight. I bet a power source like the kind Tony Stark creates to power his Iron Man suit could do it. If only movie physics worked in the real world.

What the author and posters seem to have missed - perhaps because this is a tech site and not a science site - is that the 30% reduction in muscle energy is AFTER accounting for the weight effect. If they are wearing this device and running while the measurements are taken, then the measurements obviously apply to someone wearing the device.

The times to be skeptical are when there are not data from actual measurements of the entire device in use. In cases such as, "The powerpack currently weighs 982 pounds and is placed on the desk next to the test subject, but a new power pack is in the works which will weigh only 22 pounds. The device currently saves 30% of energy and tests with the new power pack will be conducted next year..." THEN you have the problem of which everyone seems so frightfully aware. You also run into that problem when someone runs a computer simulation.

It also helps to understand the types of tests that are used to measure muscle energy. "Work" or "effort" is measured through an assessment of the byproducts of cellular respiration. They don't measure the leg separately from the back - they measure the efficiency of the system. Measure "FORCE" would give a result of the leg separate from the body, but this not what the researchers claimed to measure.

So this device really and truly aids in running with a net benefit of 30% - If you believe that their research is accurate. I haven't read the scientific paper, so I don't know how well they controlled for sources of error.

As for application, I think we are suffering from a collective lack of imagination. The millitary would LOVE to have these. Not for training - you train without the device to get the max benefit from the run - but when on maneuvers, sure. But this is hardly the only obvious use.

A lot of places like Google have segways and other things (skateboards, etc) lying around for the use of employees who run back and forth across a campus all day. These devices could work in that environment too: whenever an employer expects someone to run back and forth as part of work, they could issue these to get more work out of their employees and/or help prevent overuse/strain injuries which drive up worker-comp insurance costs for the employer.

It's unclear if the benefit drops off quickly with speed, but if it gives a significant benefit at a fast walk, I know a lot of restaurant servers who would kill to get a pair. Stock-room employees, mail carriers (and fed-ex/dhl/ups, etc.) and more.

Then there's all those jobs in countries that aren't urbanized. There are a ton of great Kenyan distance runners for a reason - and it doesn't have anything to do with competing for endorsements: life and work require running for a large minority of residents. If the Kenyan postal service could buy a pair of these instead of a motorcycle or car, it would sure pay off bigtime (assuming that these will cost less than a car)!

But even if it was too expensive for that, try this one on for size:

Elite and/or rich backpackers/ mountain climbers trying to save energy to make sure they can get around & up & down safely would love to have these. Guides always get rich clients that think they can buy their way up a mountain without training for the experience. Demanding/encouraging the use of these could allow guides to safely (and in a reasonable time frame) take rich folk on a demanding hike down the grand canyon, following it for 10 miles & then up the other side.

Seems like their could be a ton of uses. Thinking of hoofing it long distances across forbidding environments, what about people like Jack Horner or the Leakeys? People working those digs would love these things too - and then the device actually could add to scientific knowledge. How valuable is that??

I must wonder what this will achieve? Other than feeling like you are running better than without. What is the purpose? Will this be permitted in professional sport? I should think the answer to this is a resounding no. Does the machine help propel you and so therefore increase the bodies capability? So many questions, that I just dont see the point in this machine.

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