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.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday August 07 2019, @06:30PM (1 child)
Hmmm -- I think the "happy tail" is better. At least you wouldn't be tripping over pneumatic lines and carting around an air compressor.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday August 07 2019, @08:52PM
Does it wag when you see a friend or a pretty woman?
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--