{"id":27676,"date":"2016-07-11T07:46:30","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T14:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/forget-iron-man-skintight-suits-are-the-future-of-robotic-exoskeletons"},"modified":"2017-04-24T20:23:17","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T03:23:17","slug":"forget-iron-man-skintight-suits-are-the-future-of-robotic-exoskeletons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/forget-iron-man-skintight-suits-are-the-future-of-robotic-exoskeletons","title":{"rendered":"Forget Iron Man: skintight suits are the future of robotic exoskeletons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/100446428\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" frameborder=\"0\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"\" mozallowfullscreen=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Children with a rare neurological disease were recently given the chance to walk for the first time thanks to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/exoskeleton-could-help-children-with-muscular-atrophy-walk-for-first-time_uk_57593d73e4b014b4f2533d5d\">new robotic exoskeleton<\/a>. These devices \u2013 which are essentially robotic suits that give artificial movement to a user\u2019s limbs \u2013 are set to become an increasingly common way of helping people who\u2019ve lost the use of their legs to walk. But while today\u2019s exoskeletons are mostly clumsy, heavy devices, new technology could make them much easier and more natural to use by creating a robotic skin.<\/p>\n<p>Exoskeletons have been in development since the 1960s. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gereports.com\/post\/78574114995\/the-story-behind-the-real-iron-man-suit\/\">The first one<\/a> was a bulky set of legs and claw-like gloves reminiscent of the superhero, Iron Man, designed to use hydraulic power to help industrial workers lift hundreds of kilogrammes of weight. It didn\u2019t work, but since then other designs for both the upper and lower body have successfully been used to <a href=\"http:\/\/time.com\/4189590\/exoskeleton-super-strength-ekso-bionics\/\">increase people\u2019s strength<\/a>, help teach them to <a href=\"https:\/\/jneuroengrehab.biomedcentral.com\/articles\/10.1186\/s12984-015-0048-y\">use their limbs again<\/a>, or even as a way to interact with computers using touch or <a href=\"http:\/\/ieeexplore.ieee.org\/xpls\/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=5354834&tag=lifeboatfound-20\">\u201chaptic\u201d feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bleex.me.berkeley.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/hel-media\/Publication\/Elexo.pdf\">These devices<\/a> usually consist of a chain of links and powered joints that align with the user\u2019s own bones and joints. The links are strapped securely to the user\u2019s limbs and when the powered joints are activated they cause their joints to flex. Control of the exoskeleton can be performed by a computer \u2013 for example if it is performing a physiotherapy routine \u2013 or by monitoring the electrical activity in the user\u2019s muscles and then amplifying the force they are creating.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.deepstuff.org\/forget-iron-man-skintight-suits-future-robotic-exoskeletons\/\">http:\/\/www.deepstuff.org\/forget-iron-man-skintight-suits-fut...skeletons\/<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Children with a rare neurological disease were recently given the chance to walk for the first time thanks to a new robotic exoskeleton. These devices \u2013 which are essentially robotic suits that give artificial movement to a user\u2019s limbs \u2013 are set to become an increasingly common way of helping people who\u2019ve lost the use [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1523,1499,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-computing","category-cyborgs","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40812,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27676\/revisions\/40812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}