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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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2016, @09:23PM
Don't expect to see this replace elevators in the US - at least not all of them in a building. The ADA (American's with Disabilities Act) has requirements that include all sorts of things architects need to keep in mind. As a consulting engineer who does HVAC design, I work with a lot of architects. We had one owner that was particularly annoyed when the architect told him he needed to spend money on an elevator in his new building - a fire fighting training facility. He didn't see the point of wasting floor space and money when by definition everyone who is training there needs to be able bodied, but the code is the code - so he got an elevator with his new facility.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @12:21PM
What about the people who aren't training?
Off hand examples would include someone performing an inspection and custodians.