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Robot Tail Developed to Balance Out Human Body and Stop People From Falling Over

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

"upstart" writes for Sulla:

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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Original Submission

• Re:Video won't play. Re:Video won't play. (Score: 2) by driverless on Thursday August 08 2019, @02:27AM (1 child)

  by driverless (4770) on Thursday August 08 2019, @02:27AM (#877300)

  I tried to post a link to an even earlier video of a girl with a strap-on appendage but for some reason it was blocked. Not sure what it was called, they didn't mention the name Arque but I heard a name similar to that hobbit from LoTR come up once.

  Parent

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• Re:Video won't play. (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 08 2019, @01:47PM

  by Runaway1956 (2926) on Thursday August 08 2019, @01:47PM (#877453) Journal

  Now, why would they call it a Baggins?

  Parent