What if you could improve your average running pace from 9:14 minutes/mile to 8:49 minutes/mile without weeks of training?
Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University have demonstrated that a tethered soft exosuit can reduce the metabolic cost of running on a treadmill by 5.4 percent, bringing those dreams of high performance closer to reality.
"Homo sapiens has evolved to become very good at distance running, but our results show that further improvements to this already extremely efficient system are possible," says corresponding author Philippe Malcolm, former postdoctoral research fellow at the Wyss Institute and SEAS, and now assistant professor at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, where he continues to collaborate on this work. The study [DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aan6708] [DX] appears today in Science Robotics.
[...] "Our goal is to develop a portable system with a high power-to-weight ratio so that the benefit of using the suit greatly offsets the cost of wearing it. We believe this technology could augment the performance of recreational athletes and/or help with recovery after injury," adds Lee.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @07:40AM (6 children)
I see only the following cases:
- You run for competition and this thing would not be allowed.
- You run for fun and nobody cares how fast you run. Wearing this would be like riding a bicycle and showing your logged data to your friends, saying "look how fast I ran today!"
- You run for an utilitarian purpose, and maybe it's time you left the 19th century and accept automation of tiresome tasks.
What am I missing?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @08:10AM (2 children)
The summary mentions recovery after injury too. It's extremely frustrating to get an injury and find that all of the work you've expended building up your cardio slowly slip away because of some stupid injury. And well, think of what it would be like to have certain infantry or special forces units equipped with something of this sort. Could give a significant advantage during combat.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 23 2017, @08:32AM (1 child)
Like retreating faster.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday July 23 2017, @01:27PM
Not sure why this is modded funny. For that is part of the reason mobility is such a significant advantage. Hit the enemy where they are weak and avoid (say by retreating faster) where the enemy is strong is a classic tactic that the higher mobility side can do.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Sunday July 23 2017, @08:34AM
Running with your friends... with a lion on the chase?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Sunday July 23 2017, @08:44AM
The missing application may be various service missions and space applications. People may simple lack the strength or rather spend electrical energy than more food etc.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday July 23 2017, @06:15PM
You are missing the fact that the reason many if not most people run us precisely to kick their metabolism's lazy ass into gear.
Do not want.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.