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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   Printer-friendly
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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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by maxwell demon on Wednesday August 07 2019, @02:21PM (3 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 07 2019, @02:21PM (#877073) Journal

    Here's the correct video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1-IhEhXYQ [youtube.com]

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday August 07 2019, @04:42PM (2 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Wednesday August 07 2019, @04:42PM (#877152) Homepage
    Yikes, that still (c.f. hemo's vid) reacts slowly to movements after they've started to affect the precise bit of the body they're strapped to. Exactly unlike a tail, which participates in the creation of the force that begins the motion of potentially quite remote parts[*] of the body. This is biomimicry only in the most superficial level.

    [True story: I once pulled an arse muscle (G.M.) arm-wrestling, because my posture was wrong and everything is interconnected, had I had a tail, I might have pulled that as well.]
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday August 07 2019, @06:30PM (1 child)

      by hemocyanin (186) on Wednesday August 07 2019, @06:30PM (#877178) Journal

      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

        by captain normal (2205) on Wednesday August 07 2019, @08:52PM (#877223)

        Does it wag when you see a friend or a pretty woman?

        --
        "It is easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled" Mark Twain