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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: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday August 07 2019, @04:14PM (5 children)

    by HiThere (866) on Wednesday August 07 2019, @04:14PM (#877133) Journal

    Are people envisioning removing the backs from all chairs? Otherwise sitting is going to be a real challenge. And what will someone accidentally walking too close behind you do to your balance?

    This seems funny, but like a generally bad idea for practical reasons.

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 07 2019, @05:51PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 07 2019, @05:51PM (#877165)

    Kickstand.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by arslan on Thursday August 08 2019, @07:19AM (3 children)

    by arslan (3462) on Thursday August 08 2019, @07:19AM (#877349)

    Maybe in version 10, the tail can become the chair?

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday August 08 2019, @04:49PM (2 children)

      by HiThere (866) on Thursday August 08 2019, @04:49PM (#877543) Journal

      That's not an altogether bad idea, but what would you do for back support?

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