Robotic Knee Helps Perfectly Healthy Runners Run Even Better

The Cyborg Leg It helps perfectly healthy runners run 30 percent more efficiently.
Tsukuba University

From Popular Science:

Attention cyborg wonks and lazy people: Japanese scientists at Tsukuba University have created a motorized knee that you can attach to your leg to increase your muscle power and running speed. The 11-pound kit's weight is shared by an exoskeleton-like attachment for your leg and a power source that's carried in a small backpack. But here's the best part: the device is not designed with any kind of rehabilitation or handicap-assisting function in mind; it's simply to make it easier for regular folks to run faster!

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"Luke" Arm Begins Widespread Testing Among Veterans

Deka's Luke Arm: The most advanced prosthetic in the world courtesy DEKA

From Popsci.com:

Dean Kamen's ground-breaking prosthetic enters large-scale military trial

The foot-controlled "Luke" prosthetic arm may not win any lightsaber fights, but it could soon lend a helping hand to wounded warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. A three-year study by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is slated to provide engineering feedback before widespread distribution to veterans, according to an announcement last week.

The prosthetic arm is the brainchild of Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and founder of DEKA Research and Development. DEKA has fine-tuned a control system that acts like a foot-operated joystick -- users maneuver the arm by shifting pressure to different parts of a shoe embedded with an array of sensors. Future wireless versions may circumvent the wires that currently relay signals from shoe to arm.

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Invention Awards: Robo-Legs

ReWalk: How It Works: The user plants the crutches out front and leans forward. A sensor registers the motion, and the computer instructs motors in the hip and knee of one leg to swing it forward Bland Designs

From Popsci.com:

An exoskeleton that enables paraplegics to walk

Today's featured Invention Award winner: ReWalk, the lightweight, affordable, powered smart exoskeleton.

After breaking his neck in a 1997 fall, Israeli engineer Amit Goffer learned that he would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He soon concluded that this mode of transportation was outdated and began work on the ReWalk, the only wearable exoskeleton that allows paraplegics to stand, amble, and even climb stairs. Soon, more than a dozen patients in the U.S. will strap in and start strolling.

Invention: ReWalk
Inventor: Amit Goffer
Cost: $2 million+
Time: 10 years
Is It Ready Yet? 1 2 3 4 5

Goffer, now 56, needed a design that would be not only safe but also energy-efficient enough to last for an entire day. "I was worried you would need a truckload of batteries," he recalls. To solve that problem, he made a design choice that meant he could never use it. Goffer is paralyzed from the chest down, but he realized that if wearers could use crutches, it would conserve energy and simplify balance, since the device wouldn't have to keep the person upright all on its own.

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DARPA Program Reaches for Better Prosthetics

From Defense Industry Daily:

A February 2008 Pentagon DefenseLINK story touted the progress of prosthetic limb development, fueled by a combination of combat need and the steadily advancing capabilities inherent in modern electronics and robotics. Army Col. Geoff Ling manages DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics programs.

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