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Prototype System Replaces Stairs and Elevators with Human Power

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

Phoenix666 writes:

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.

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Original Submission

• Re:Something smells fishy here Re:Something smells fishy here (Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Thursday October 27 2016, @12:35AM

  by stormwyrm (717) on Thursday October 27 2016, @12:35AM (#419221) Journal

  It says 10% of the effort not 10% of the energy. It depends on how you define "effort". I don't think they mean work/energy by effort, because it will require roughly the same amount of energy to lift something up a certain distance whether you pull it up by an elevator or bring it up the stairs, or use some other fancy contraption like what they have to do so. I think by "effort" they mean force. It takes less force to climb stairs up five metres than it does to pull oneself directly up five metres, i.e. there is a mechanical advantage [wikipedia.org] to using the stairs. I weigh about 75 kg, so to lift myself straight up I'd have to exert 735 N of force, expending 3675 J of energy in the process. A staircase can be approximated as an inclined plane. A typical staircase has a slope of about 30°, so the mechanical advantage would be 1/sin(30°) = 2, i.e. I'd have to exert only half as much force to climb the stairs as I would to pull myself up, only 367.5 N. However a 30° inclined plane going up 5 metres would be also 5/sin(30°) = 10 m. So I'd need to travel twice as far going up the stairs as I would pulling myself straight up, but exert only half the force doing so, so energy is still conserved: I still have to expend 3675 J to go up. If they claim that that the effort is only 10% that of stairs, then that probably means that they have roughly ten times the mechanical advantage of an inclined plane/stairs, and I'd need to exert only 36.75 N or so of force to go up five metres to to the next floor. I'd need to travel 100 m to get that kind of level of force reduction though, so I'm not sure if that's such a good deal.

  --
  Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.

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• Re:Something smells fishy here Re:Something smells fishy here (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @06:24AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @06:24AM (#419304)

  have you considered the effrt involved to stay upright? in this thing you're sitting down.
  also, you can use hands as well as feet, and only use belly/back for useful work (not for standing up).

  Parent

  • Re:Something smells fishy here (Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday October 27 2016, @08:45AM

    by Nuke (3162) on Thursday October 27 2016, @08:45AM (#419327)

    have you considered the effrt involved to stay upright? .... also, you can use hands as well as feet

    Humans require very little effort to be standing up - just tiny balance adjustments and cetainly not causing 90% of the effort to walk upstairs.

    The guy in the video is not using his arms to pull himself up (watch his arm muscles), he is only shifting his hands upwards for the next "push" with his legs. And I believe that most of that "push" is being done by tensioned ropes attached to some sort of spring or counterweight behind the scenes. Either the inventors are making a poor job of describing and demonstrating this device, or being less than honest, or it is being reported to us poorly.

    Only fit people can lift their own weight with their arms held above them, even when held straight, let alone bent like in the video. Try it.

    Parent