I remember when I looked at the Avatar, absolutely accumulated from the exoskeletons shown there. Since then, I think that the future behind these smart glands. I also really want to attach my handms to this topic to this topic. Moreover, if you believe the Analytical Agency ABI Research, the volume of the global market for exoskeletons by 2025 will be $ 1.8 billion at this stage not being a technique, an engineer, architect and a programmer, in some confusion. I think how to approach this topic. I will be glad if people who would potentially be interesting to participate in such projects in the comments to the article.

Now there are four key companies in the exoskeletons market: American Indego, Israeli Rewalk, Japanese Hybrid Assistive Limb and Ekso Bionics. average cost their products from 75 to 120 thousand euros. In Russia, people are also not sitting without doing. For example, the company "Exoatlet" is actively working on medical exoskeletons.

The first exoskeleton was jointly developed by General Electric and United States Military in the 60s, and called Hardiman. It could raise 110 kg at an effort applied with a rise of 4.5 kg. However, it was impractical due to its significant mass in 680 kg. The project was not successful. Any attempt to use the full exoskeleton ended intensely uncontrolled movement, as a result of which he never fully experienced a man inside. Further studies were focused on one hand. Although it had to raise 340 kg, its weight was 750 kg, which twice the lifting capacity exceeded. Without getting together all components for work practical use Hardiman project was limited.

Rex

Features and specifications:
1. Independent walking. Does not require crutches or other means to stabilize, leaving the hands free.
4. Exoskeleton for the feet allows you to: stand up, turn, go back, stand on one leg, go along the stairs, walk along various, even inclined surfaces.
5. The device is very easy to control - all functions are activated by the joystick.
6. The device can be used all day due to the high-spirle removable battery.
7. With a small weight of the REX constituent of only 38 kilograms, it withstands the user weighing up to 100 kilograms and with an increase of 1.42 to 1.93 meters.
8. A convenient fixation system does not cause any discomfort even if you wear it all day.
9. Just when the user does not move, but simply costs REX does not spend the battery charge.
10. Access to buildings without ramps, thanks to the possibility of walking on the stairs without assistance.

Exoskel do it yourself

How can one independently implement an exoskeleton.

So that he was wildly strong, as I understand it to stay on the hydraulics.
To work the hydraulic system is needed:

-Proil and mobile frame
-Mimnal required set Hydraulic pistons (call them "muscles")
-two vacuum pump, Two barocamera with the valve system connected tube.
- Cubes that can withstand high pressure.
-power supply exoskeleton
To control the valve system:
- a small dead computer
-Ocline 30 sensors with a family (for example) degrees in proportional degrees of valve openness
The special program is capable of counting the states of the sensors and send the appropriate valve commands.

For which all this is necessary:

- "Muscles" and the frame actually this is the entire supporting machine.
- Vacuum pumps. Why two? To increase the pressure in the tubes and muscles, and the second reduced.
-bamers connected tube. In one pressure to increase in the second lower, and the tube is equipped with a valve opening only in two cases: pressure leveling, provision idle move liquids.
-Clap. This is a simple I. effective system Management that will depend on pressure in the barocamera and computer management. Having increasing the pressure in the barocamera. Opening the valves of the channels of "strained muscles" will allow you to carry out certain steps to increase the pressure on the hydraulic pistons, moving parts of the skeleton (frame).

Sensors, why are about thirty? Two on the feet, three on the feet, six on the hands and 4 for the back. How to position them? against the movement of the limbs. So that the foot put forward from the inside to the exoskeleton and the sensor on its inner side. Next, I will explain why this is.
-Computer with the program. the main task of the computer and the program to make sure that the sensors do not experience pressure, then the person inside will not feel the exisoslet resistance, which will strive to repeat the human movement, regardless of the activity of the nerves, muscles, or some other biometric indicators, thereby allow to use much more cheap Sensors than for example in high-tech exoskeletons. Sensor signals for a computer must be divided into two groups: with unconditional control hydraulic system and received only under the condition that the opposite sensor with unconditional control does not have pressure. This implementation will keep the leg to the left knee into the ground from the automatic extension if the person himself does not break it. But for this, it will come to a person inside the exoskeleton raise his leg from the ground (or it is necessary to programmatically reduce the sensitivity of sensors of triggering with the condition). On the example of the foot: the sensors with the unconditional signal are located from the front side, with unconditional with the rear. Imagine yourself how to move. When flexing the leg of the man, the foot of the exoskeleton will be afraid even if all the weight of the person will be on the sensors of the extensive leg. Here, with the help of an accelerometer (or the other apparatus similar to the vestibular), it is possible to specify a change in the unconditional sensor signals depending on the body position in space, eliminating the curvature of the exoskeleton when falling onto the back.

Next, the hands - to increase the strength to make three-pailed, durable, can be combined with hydraulics and metal cable. The hand must be separate from the human, that is, before a custody joint, it will exclude the structural difficulties associated with finding the hand of a person in the hand of the exoskeleton and will not allow the human hand to be injured, as well as the foot of a person should be on the ankle joint of the exoskeleton and protected.
Hand-management. a bit of free space for two thirds of the freedom of the brush and fingers of a man's hand in the hand of an exoskeleton and a system of three rings On the cables, three fingers from the little finger to the middle one in one, index to another and large in the third. All the control is to ensure that the fingers of the person move the ring, which is causing them, the cable was scrolled by the sensor wheel, depending on the rotation of which the fingers of the exoskeleton were bent. This will exclude an extra force of hydraulics to extend or bending the fingers of the exoskeletade hand over its design features. On two rings to use one cable, on one or two. Why? By the fact that the fingers from the mother's fingers should be bent and blends only in one direction and the thumb into two. If you want, you can check on your own hands.

Power supply exoskeleton - Here I am still a terrible Mudyatina again. You need to choose a power source only after the product of all the necessary calculations, maximum optimization of the design of the exoskeleton and the measurement of its power consumption.

I remember when I looked at the Avatar, absolutely accumulated from the exoskeletons shown there. Since then, I think that the future behind these smart glands. I also really want to attach my handms to this topic to this topic. Moreover, if you believe the Analytical Agency ABI Research, the volume of the global market for exoskeletons by 2025 will be $ 1.8 billion at this stage not being a technique, an engineer, architect and a programmer, in some confusion. I think how to approach this topic. I will be glad if people who would potentially be interesting to participate in such projects in the comments to the article.
Now there are four key companies in the exoskeletons market: American Indego, Israeli Rewalk, Japanese Hybrid Assistive Limb and Ekso Bionics. The average cost of their products from 75 to 120 thousand euros. In Russia, people are also not sitting without doing. For example, the company "Exoatlet" is actively working on medical exoskeletons.

The first exoskeleton was jointly developed by General Electric and United States Military in the 60s, and called Hardiman. It could raise 110 kg at an effort applied with a rise of 4.5 kg. However, it was impractical due to its significant mass in 680 kg. The project was not successful. Any attempt to use the full exoskeleton ended intensely uncontrolled movement, as a result of which he never fully experienced a man inside. Further studies were focused on one hand. Although it had to raise 340 kg, its weight was 750 kg, which was twice the lifting force. Without getting together all components for work, the practical application of the Hardiman project was limited.

Then there will be a brief story about modern exoskeletons, which somehow came out to the level of commercial implementation.

1. Independent walking. Does not require crutches or other means to stabilize, leaving the hands free.
4. Exoskeleton for the legs allows you to stand up to sit down, turn, go back, stand on one leg, go on the stairs, walk along various, even inclined surfaces.
5. The device is very easy to control - all functions are activated by the joystick.
6. The device can be used all day due to the high-spirle removable battery.
7. With a small weight of the REX constituent of only 38 kilograms, it withstands the user weighing up to 100 kilograms and with an increase of 1.42 to 1.93 meters.
8. A convenient fixation system does not cause any discomfort even if you wear it all day.
9. Also when the user does not move, but simply costs the REX does not spend the battery charge.
10. Access to the building without ramps, thanks to the possibility of walking on the stairs without assistance.

Hal.

HAL ( Hybrid Assistive Limb.) - is a robotic exoskeleton with upper limbs. On the this moment Two prototypes have been developed - Hal 3 (restoration of the motor function of the legs) and HAL 5 (restoration of the work, legs and torso). Using Hal 5, the operator is capable of lifting and transferring items, five times higher than the mass of the maximum load under normal conditions.

Price in Russia: promised for 243,600 rubles. Failed to confirm the information.

Features and specifications:

1. The weight of the device is 12 kg.
3. The device can operate from 60 to 90 minutes without recharging.
4. Exoskel is actively used by the rehabilitation of patients with pathology of motor functions of the lower limbs due to central violations nervous system or as a result of neuromuscular diseases.

Rewalk

Rewalk is an exoskeleton that allows people who suffer from the lower limb paralysis. Like an outer skeleton or bioelectronic suit, the RWALK device using special sensors determines deviations in human equilibrium, and then transforms them into impulses, normalizing its movements, which allows a person to walk or stand. Rewalk is already available in Europe, and today approved FDA in the United States.

Price in Russia: from 3.4 million rubles (under the order).

Features and specifications:

1. Weight device 25 kg.
2. Exoskeleton can withstand up to 80 kg.
3. The device can operate up to 180 minutes without recharging.
4. Battery Charging Time 5-8 hours
5. Exoskel is actively used by the rehabilitation of patients with pathologies of motor functions of the lower extremities due to disorders of the central nervous system or as a result of neuromuscular diseases.

EKSO BIONIC.

EKSO GT is another project of an exoskeleton that helps people with severe diseases of the propeller, reappear the opportunity to move.

Price in Russia: from 7.5 million rubles (under the order).

Features and specifications:

1. The weight of the device is 21.4 kg.
2. Exoskeleton can withstand up to 100 kg.
3. Maximum width of the hips: 42 cm;
4. Battery mass: 1.4 kg;
5. Dimensions (VCHHHH): 0.5 x 1.6 x 0.4 m.
6. The exoskeleton is actively used by the rehabilitation of patients with pathologies of motor functions of the lower extremities due to disorders of the central nervous system or as a result of neuromuscular diseases.

DM.

Dm ( Dream Machine) - Hydraulic automated exoskeleton with voice control system.

Price in Russia: 700 000 rubles.

Features and specifications:

1. Weight device 21 kg.
2. The exoskeleton must withstand the weight of the user up to 100 kg.
3. The scope of application can be significantly wider than the rehabilitation of patients with the pathology of motor functions of the lower extremities due to disorders of the central nervous system or as a result of neuromuscular diseases. This can be industry, construction, show business and fashion industry.

Issues for discussion:

1. What is the optimal composition of the project team?
2. What is the cost of the project at the initial stage?
3. What are the pitfalls?
4. How do you see optimum time project implementation from idea to commercial start?
5. Is it worth starting a similar project now and why?
6. What should be geography and expansion to the market?
7. Personally, you are ready to take part in a similar project and if so, in what capacity?

ZY I will be grateful for the constructive discussion, opinions, arguments and arguments for and against in the comments. I am sure that I'm not alone in thought. Meanwhile, I am sure that an exoskeleton is new iPhone In world mass culture on the horizon of the next ten years.

If you are one of those who gladly looked at all parts " Iron man"You probably were delighted with iron costumewho put on Tony Stark before the fight with the villains. Agree, it would be nice to have such a suit. In addition to the possibility of delivering you in the blink of an eye anywhere, although at least for bread, he would protect your body from all sorts of damage and gave superhuman power.

You will probably not be surprised by the fact that very soon a lightweight version of the "Iron Man" costume will allow soldiers to run faster, to transfer heavy weapons and move around rough terrain. In this case, the costume will protect them from bullets and bombs. Military engineers and private companies work on exoskeletons since the 60s of the last century, but only the defense of achievements in the field of electronics and materials science brought us to the incarnation of this idea so closely as ever before.

In 2010, the American defense contractor Raytheon demonstrated the experimental exoskeleton XOS 2 - in fact, a robotic costume controlled by the human brain - which can raise two or three times more weight than a person, without any effort and extraneous help. Another company, Trek Aerospace, develops an exoskeleton with a built-in jetpack (jet wound), which can fly at a speed of 112 km / h and immobally hang over the ground. These and a number of other promising companies, including such monsters, like Lockheed Martin, bring the costume of "Iron Man" every year to reality.

Interview with the creator of the Russian exoskeleton Stakhanov read.

ExoskeletonXOS 2 OTRaytheon

Note that not only the military will benefit from the development of a good exoskeleton. Once, people with a damaged spinal cord or degenerative diseases that limit the ability of movement will be able to easily move through external framework costumes. The first versions of exoskels, for example, Rewalk from Argo Medical Technologies, have already enrolled in the market and received universal approval. However, at the moment the area of \u200b\u200bthe exoskeletons is still in its infancy.

What revolution is promised to spend the exoskets of the future on the battlefield and? What technical obstacles should engineers and designers be overcome to make exoskels really practical for everyday use? Let's figure it out.

History of the development of exospkelets

The warriors put on armor on their bodies from time immemorial, but the first idea of \u200b\u200bthe body with mechanical muscles appeared in science fiction in 1868, in one of the kopeck novels Edward Sylvester Ellis. The book "Steam Man Prairie" described gigantic steam engine The human form, which moved his inventor, ingenious Johnny Brainerday, at a speed of 96.5 km / h, when he hunted on the bulls and the Indians.

But it is fantastic. The first real-style patent for the exoskeleton received a Russian mechanic engineer Nikolay Yagn in the 1890s in America. Known by its developments, the constructor has lived over the ocean for more than 20 years, patented with a dozen ideas describing an exoskeleton, allowing soldiers to run, walk and jump with ease. However, in fact, the Yagn is known only to create a "a friend of the Kochghar" - automatic device that feeds water into steam boilers.

Exoskeleta patented by N. Yaghn

By 1961, two years after Marvel Comics came up with her "iron man", and Robert Jainline wrote a "star landing", the Pentagon decided to make his exocosa. He set the task to create "servosoldate", which was described as a "human capsule equipped with steering and amplifiers", allowed quickly and easily move heavy objects, as well as protecting the carrier from bullets, poisonous gas, heat and radiation. By the mid-60s, the engineer of the Cornell University Nile Mayzen developed a 15.8-kilogram wearable frame exoskeleton, called the Superman's Suit or "Human Amplifier". He allowed the user to raise 453 kilograms by each hand. In addition, General Electric has developed a similar 5.5-meter device, the so-called "pedipulator", which was controlled by the operator from the inside.

Despite these very interesting steps, they were not crowned with success. The costumes were impractical, but the research continued. In the 1980s, scientists from the Los Alamos laboratory created a design for the so-called "Pitman" costume, an exoskeleton for using the American landing. However, the concept remained only on the drawing board. Since then, the world has seen several more developments, but the lack of materials and the restrictions of energy carriers did not allow us to see the real costume of the Iron Man.

Over the years, exoskeletons producers have been driven into an angle of technology. Computers were too slow and could not process commands leading suits in motion. The power supply was not enough to make the exoskeleton are quite portable, and the electromechanical muscles-drives that moved the limbs were simply too weak and cumbersome to work "humanly". Nevertheless, the beginning was laid. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe exoskeleton was too promising for military and medical spheres to just part with her.

Man-machine

In the early 2000s, the desire to create a real costume of "Iron Man" began to bring it somewhere.

Defense Agency promising developments Darpa, an exotic incubator and advanced technology Pentagon, deployed a program by $ 75 million, within which the creation of an exoskeleton was assumed to supplement the human body and its performance. The list of Darpa's requirements was enough ambitious: the agency wanted to get a car that will allow the soldier to fully transfer hundreds of cargo kilograms for whole days, support large guns that usually require the presence of two operators, and can also make a wounded soldier, if you need a battlefield. At the same time, the car must be invulnerable to fire, as well as high jump. Darpa plan Many were immediately considered impracticable.

But not all.

Sarcos - headed by the Creator of Robot Steve Jacobsen, who before that created an 80-ton mechanical dinosaur - came up with an innovative system in which the sensors and used these signals to control the valves set, which, in turn, were adjusted by hydraulics under high pressure in the joints . Mechanical joints were moving cylinders connected by cables that mimic tendons connecting human muscles. As a result, the experimental exoskeleton XOS was born, which did a person look like a giant insect. Ultimately, SARCOS was purchased by Raytheon, which continued to develop in five years to present the second generation of costume.

Exoskeleton XOS 2 so much agreed the public that Time magazine included it in the list of the five best in 2010.

Meanwhile, other companies, like Berkeley Bionics, worked on a decrease in the amount of energy that artificial prostheses demanded that the exoskeleton could function for a long time and be practical. One of the 2000s, Human Load Carrier (Hulc), could work up to 20 hours without recharging. Progress gradually moved forward.

Exoskeleton Hal.

By the end of the decade, the Japanese company Cyberdyne has developed a robotic Hal costume, even more incredible in its device. Instead of relying on the contraction of the muscles of the operator's muscles, Hal worked on the sensors that read the operator's brain electrical signals. Theoretically, the Hal-5 exoskeleton can allow the user to do everything he wants, just thinking about it without moving a single muscle. But so far these exoskeletons are the project of the future. And they have their own problems. For example, only a few exoskels today received approval for use in public. The rest are still tested.

Development problems

By 2010, the DARPA project for the creation of exoskels led to certain results. Currently, advanced exoskeleton systems weighing up to 20 kilograms can be lifted under 100 kilograms of payload almost without operator's efforts. At the same time, the newest exoskels work quieter of the office printer, can move at a speed of 16 km / h, perform squats and jump.

Not so long ago, one of the contractors of the defense agency, Lockheed Martin, presented his exoskeleton designed to raise weights. The so-called "passive exoskeleton", created for employees of shipbuilding shipyard, simply translates the load on the footsoselet feet standing on Earth.

The difference between modern exoskels from those worked out in the 60s, in the fact that they are equipped with sensors and GPS receivers. Thus, even more raising rates for use in the military sphere. Soldiers could get a lot of advantages using such exoskeletons, from accurate geopositioning to additional superposts. Darpa also develops automated fabrics that could be used in exoskeletons in order to monitor the state of the heart and respiration.

If the American industry continues to move this way, it will very soon appear, which can not only move "faster, higher, stronger", but also to transfer additionally several hundreds of payload. Nevertheless, it will take at least a few years before the real " iron people"Go to the battlefield.

As often happens, the development of military agencies (remember, for example, the Internet) can bring tremendous benefits in peaceful timeSince technology ultimately go out and will help people. Suffering from complete or partial paralysis, people with damage to the spinal cord and muscle atrophyes will be able to conduct a more full-blooded life. Berkeley Bionics, for example, experiencing elegs, an exoskeleton running on a battery that will allow a person to walk, sit or just stand for long periods of time.

One thing that can be said for sure: the beginning of the process of the rapid development of exospkelets was put at the beginning of this century (let's call it a second wave), and how it will end - it will become very well, very soon. Technologies never stand still, and if the engineers are taken for something, they bring it to a logical end.