Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday October 26 2016, @08:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the must-be-empty-handed dept.

Humans are said to have evolved from an ancestor that once swung through the trees to get about, free to move through the environment in almost any direction. But today, in our modern high-rise environment, if you simply want to go up or down, it's probably fair to say we've actually devolved. Stairs, elevators, and lifts all take up precious space within buildings, and they're expensive, complicated, or require endless maintenance. Now a new human-powered system prototype dubbed Vertical Walking has been developed that requires just ten percent of the effort needed to climb stairs, but can easily move a person up a vast number of floors.

[...] Designed by the Rombaut Frieling lab in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Vertical Walking uses a system of upright rails that incorporate pulleys and a clever gripping system to allow a user to incrementally move between floors in a building. Claimed to require less than 10 percent of the effort needed to climb stairs, and with no other external energy input needed, the creators assert that the prototype has been successfully proven by a wide range of people, including an amputee and an MS sufferer.

A novel way to move between floors.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday October 26 2016, @08:35PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @08:35PM (#419133)

    I wonder if when people went back downstairs, if the energy could be reclaimed and made available to the system via a regenerative-braking style mechanism, flywheel, selectable counterweight, or the like.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday October 26 2016, @10:22PM

    by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @10:22PM (#419183)

    I wonder if when people went back downstairs, if the energy could be reclaimed and made available to the system

    TFA is light on detail, but for 10% of the energy needed on stairs the system must be doing that already. I am guessing that when you go down there are springs being stretched which then help someone back up again. There is no way that it could only need 10% otherwise. The energy needed to lift a mass to a height is mass x height x g plus some losses due to friction and air resistance. Those losses are not very significant compared with the height part of the equation, and in fact those losses are likely to be more with this contraption than they are with walking up stairs.