Harvard's Research And Development Shorts Can Instantly Save Ten Pounds.

Recently, a short pants developed by the Institute of synthetic biology, Harvard University (Wyss) was put on the cover of Science magazine.

This short pants, which are almost the same as the "three dimensional mobile device" in the giant of attack, can not only adapt to different terrain and speed, but also "pull" users to walk and run.

Put on the shorts, the motor and cable at the waist will continue to draw the thighs and buttocks according to the movement state of the users, so as to assist the hip joint movement. The user will feel that he has not worked hard and the man has already fled.

"After wearing this system for more than ten minutes, you will be a bit suspicious of whether it is really useful, because you can only feel that you are walking normally." However, once you shut the system down, you suddenly feel that your two legs are plumping with lead, says David Perry, engineer of the Wyss Research Institute at Harvard University. It's like when you came down from the airport conveyor belt to realize how fast it was running on the conveyor belt.

The data published in the journal Science also show that the shorts can really save people's energy.

In the test, when walking at a speed of 1.5 meters per second, shorts can reduce the metabolic rate of 9.3% users. When running at 2.5 meters per second, shorts can reduce the metabolic rate of 4%. It was equivalent to 7.4 kilograms and 5.7 kilograms of body weight respectively when walking and running, and more than 10 pounds of meat was thrown away from the sky.

Oxygen consumption test

Although this shorts do not seem to have any mechanical sense, this is the highest level of flexible exoskeleton developed by humans.

Not only is it convenient to wear and wear (for everyday use), it weighs only 10 jin, and it can adapt to many scenes such as running, walking, downhill and downhill. The exoskeleton developed before is not too bulky, it is too rigid and can only deal with a specific mode of motion.

Exoskeletons developed by Sarcos Robotics

It is the first time in history that we have developed a universal exoskeleton which can significantly improve human locomotion ability.

Free switch between walking and running

Unlike the imagination, the difficulty in developing exoskeletons is not how to gain body movement (as long as a few traction belts can do it), but because the church traction system is adapted to different modes of human motion.

In fact, when people walk and run, there is a big difference in how they work.

When walking, the human body's center of mass moves like an inverted pendulum (Figure A upper part), which shifts along with the front and rear movements of the two feet.

But when running, the body becomes a "spring mass system" (Figure A below). Each leg is like a spring connected to the hip, which is constantly compressed and then bounced.

In order to allow shorts to give different assistance to the human body in two states, the research team equipped sensors for measuring force and motion angle on the exoskeleton, and trained the control algorithm according to the feedback data of the sensors.

Under different conditions of running and walking, the traction intensity of different parts is different.

In order to test the function of the device in the real scene, the researchers also invited the tester to wear shorts in hills and mountains. The result shows that this coat also helps to run uphill and variable speed.

The research team said that the next step is to reduce the weight of the system by 40% to 5 pounds.

Gospel of outdoor workers

Although it is not attractive for fitness people to reduce their metabolism during running, there are still more people who want to walk in their dreams to save energy.

Those who need to travel long distances, weigh on the road or move quickly will become the beneficiaries of exoskeletons. Whether it's a carpet search rescue worker, a soldier who carries out material tasks, or an outdoor hike explorer, he can use this system in his work activities.

In the future, as the technology continues to mature, the shorts can even help people with leg disorders to rehabilitate and walk and play a bigger role.