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posted by chromas on Wednesday August 07 2019, @01:20PM   Printer-friendly
from the strap-on dept.

Robot tail developed to balance out human body and stop people from falling over

The strap-on appendage, known as Arque, has been developed by researchers at Keio University in Japan.

[...] The tail can be be adjusted to fit whoever is wearing it by adding or removing modular "vertebrae", the Fast Company reports .

Small weights can also be inserted inside each vertebrae to help offset the wearer's weight.

[...] Artificial muscles inside the robotic tail control its movement by contracting and expanding using an external pressurised air system that resembles a lawn mower or giant vacuum.

Because the prototype tail has to remain tethered to this system, the wearer is not able to move very far using it.

[...] The tail was presented last week at the 2019 SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles , which focuses on graphics, gaming, and emerging technology.


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  • (Score: 1) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Wednesday August 07 2019, @02:49PM (2 children)

    by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Wednesday August 07 2019, @02:49PM (#877087) Journal

    As long as there are not a lot of doors slamming shut in the vicinity I might like having some extra balance while I am on my parkour tour of siberian factories.

    But there always seem to be things in the vicinity that slam shut so no tails for me. Was there an epidemic of people falling over that I didn't hear about? Are we sure this was the best use of brain matter?

    2025 the children of the rich will be flying on actually hovering boards with mechanical tails and STILL need VR to get a thrill.

    The future is starting to actually get futurey....

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Wednesday August 07 2019, @04:45PM (1 child)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday August 07 2019, @04:45PM (#877153) Homepage
    Perhaps if you lean back far enough this will loop forwards to compensate. In which case, it raises the question of fundamental importance: can this tail be used to scratch your balls?
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 08 2019, @09:37AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 08 2019, @09:37AM (#877383) Journal

      can this tail be used to scratch your balls?

      Yes. Exactly once.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford