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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: 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?
    --
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  • (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