Healthy humans are very good at walking but for people who walk long distances for ex. mailman or carry heavy
loads for long distances for ex. soldiers and people who can’t walk as
well due to injuries, the boots could help them
walk more efficiently.
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| Image: Stephen Thrift |
Steven Collins from Carnegie Mellon University and colleagues designed light weight wearable boot-like exoskeleton that we can wear and works on a spring and clutch mechanism to make walking easier. They published a paper in Nature. With these boots people can walk more without getting tired.
According to Researchers, the exoskeleton gives a 7 percent gain without chemical or electrical energy. This energy saving is considerable improvement on past designs.
The design is inspired by the Achilles tendon, which connects the calf muscle to the back of the heel. The spring
stretches during the normal action of stepping forward during the
walking stride, and this stretching stores energy. When the spring
recoils, it releases that stored energy and powers the foot to push off
the ground.
"I'll tell you, it feels really cool," Sawicki, co-author said. "There's a comfortable sort of squishiness for the first 10 minutes. But then it becomes totally transparent. Your body just integrates it."
"Our goal is to be no more expensive than a pair of high performance
skis," Sawicki said. "And a big group of potential users would be people
with normal aging issues. We can imagine people who are really
recreational - aging baby boomers who like to hike, or maybe even run
- using these to extend their heavy exercise years by a decade or so."
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