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First Exoskeleton Gets FDA Approval For U.S. Sales

posted by n1 on Saturday June 28 2014, @08:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the waiting-for-gray-fox-edition dept.

AnonTechie writes:

A motorized exoskeleton, designed to help paralyzed people walk again, just earned U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. It is the first such device to do so.

The device, called ReWalk, straps on a user's body and helps those with certain spinal-cord injuries to sit, stand, and walk. Users have to wear a backpack to carry the ReWalk's computer and battery. They also have to wear a wrist device with buttons to tell the motorized legs when to stand up, sit down, or start walking. But it's not like users are punching every step into their wrist controllers — ReWalk's legs also respond to movements of the user's torso, so that leaning forward triggers a step.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday June 28 2014, @09:33AM

    by anubi (2828) on Saturday June 28 2014, @09:33AM (#61297) Journal
    might be in order. He has been working on a very ingenious mechanical artwork thingie that is little more than a series of interoperating levers that smoothly translates a rotary motion to the motion of walking.

    He calls his art a "Strandbeest". [strandbeest.com] However this link doesn't do to much for me because it seems to rely heavily on scripting and my end keeps kicking it out.

    However, if you just want to see this thing work, here's a YouTube link. [youtube.com].

    When you watch this, keep in mind there is not one transistor or hydraulic cylinder in it. Its doing some amazing motion. If you study further, you will see he has invested a lot of time understanding the forces and positions of various triangles formed from rods with moving vertices.

    I think its a beautiful piece of work, with a lot of potential.

    If you want to pursue further, I have given you all the keywords for further searches.
    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   3  

  • (Score: 2) by tynin on Saturday June 28 2014, @02:46PM

    by tynin (2013) on Saturday June 28 2014, @02:46PM (#61341) Journal

    This made my morning. Thanks for sharing.