Basic bio engineering...(I think)

[Vandrail]

Well, I’d provide a picture, but I suck at drawing, so the theoritics will have to do.

 

Its an extremely basic idea, but I haven’t been able to find anything of the nature online. I’ve always had an obsessive interest in exoskeletons. I suppose it comes from Metal Gear solid, as it was the game that introduced me to the idea. I suppose its rather childish, but meh. An interest that spurs a hobby that takes up idle time can be a good thing, even if it isn’t practical.

 

Anyhow, I finally got around to thinking about basic ways to enhance human movements. To begin with, I didn’t want to start using outside forces, as that would require knowledge beyond what I currently have. So, I started with something simple. What simple device stores energy? A spring.

 

I’ve taken this idea and applied it to two things thus far. Punching strength, and jumping height.

 

For the punching strength, a simple system of three metal bars is applied. For weight reasons, I’ve decided on aluminum. Minor complications that arise with this is the need for a Tig wielder and, from what I understand, aluminum is one of the harder things to weld. Of course, this is only a problem should I decide to do it myself.

 

Now, across the back, running shoulder to shoulder, one bar will rest. I’m thinking either an adjustable metal strap under each shoulder, or an X strap running across the back and chest.

 

From this base bar, one bar will run down from each shoulder to the elbow. They will be attached here. Now, the bars will be attached to the back bar in such a way to allow full arc movement to the sides. Directly below this will be two hinges.

 

The lower hinge will bend forwards, and normally. However, upper hinge will be springed. Thus, any movement backwards will be resisted by the spring, and energy stored. Upon release, the user can swing with normal muscles, adding the energy from pulling back to the punch. Now, normal springed hinges don’t have much resistance, but if I understand their mechanics correctly, it shouldn’t be to terribly difficult to make one that does.

 

I suppose the potential flaws with the system, even if it works, is the possible damaging of the arm, wrist, or hand from swinging/impacting something with more force than you could normally hit with.

 

To this extent, I’m working on a way of displacing the force to the device, or more of the body than merely the arm at least.

 

Anyhow, I’m looking for more potential flaws, reasons why it wont work all together, or general discussion on the idea. Depending on feedback, I may post the details on the other device as well. So far, amongst the people I have talked to, the general consensus is that it should function properly, but none of them have any background, or even general studies, in mechanics or engineering, so I thought I’d ask someplace like here.

[JohnF]

The difficulty you face with this is joining the two forces together. You are more likely to find the force from the spring and the forward force from your muscle will work independantly of each other.

 

But since the pulling back part of storing energy in the spring is greater than a forward punch you could just accept the use of stored energy in the spring. This means you just pull back and hold until ready to release. When you release you allow the spring to do all the work rather than trying to help it.

 

When I shoot an arrow from a bow I can store far more energy in the bow during the draw than the energy I could provide in throwing the arrow. So I let the bow provide all the energy. What makes this so efficient is that the energy release is very fast.

[Rocket Man]

the only problem i see is the restriction of motion and the constant applied forward force on the arm. it would be terribly difficult to run with.

 

a basic exoskeleton shouldn't restrict motion and shouldn't rely on the user to apply large forces. if this thing were made using a farily simple array of pneumatic cylinders and conductive foam to detect changes in pressure, it could apply a force to reposition itself centrally over the users arm compensating for anything it has to push through. it wouldn't be any advantage in wall hopping because you still lift your own weight but you could carry vastly heftier loads over terrain you'd normally run bare.

[Vandrail]

Well, pneumatics is actually what I intend to use in the next stage. Consider these a...feeler, to easy myself into doing such things. I'm also going to have to research pneumatics. I work 3rd shift at the local Wal-Mart though, and don’t have school so time isn’t really an issue for me. There wouldn’t be constant force on the arms either, only if bent back.

 

Yeah, that means if using proper running form, your going to use more muscle pushing back (consequently building muscle though). But, a lot of people I know that run don’t use proper form. I'm not the greatest runner in the world, but I usually get by fine with only a couple of inches movement backwards. The momentum of running should also offset some of the energy needed.

 

Anyways, as the replies are mostly of a positive nature, I’ll go ahead and post my idea for the legs. They’re even simpler. A bar of metal running down each leg, strapped on at the thigh and ankle. A springed hinge would be at the knee. Now, according to my Logic, if the springed hinge is just strong enough to hold only if your using some muscle to hold yourself up, but will be bent if you allow gravity to pull down on you, then you’ll store a charge to leap exactly the distance you bend down.

 

Of course, the stronger the resistance, the more stored energy, and thus the higher the jump. So, the stronger the muscles used to bend your legs, the stronger the spring you could use. Of course, I assume that there is a maximum safe jumping height before the fall starts to do damage to your legs, even overlooking the long term effects and only focusing on the ones that can be observed quickly.

 

If I could come up with being able to jump, oh say, eight feet vertically, I still think it would be reasonably safe, no?

 

Also, if you modified your running using such a device, you could bend your leg on impact of each step and kick off before your leg goes into recovery. It would be more one legged, alternating leaps than running, but I would think that you could achieve a reasonably fast speed.

 

 

And you might be right about having trouble joining the forces, though I wont actually know until I get a working model. I'm currently looking around my area for...well, not sure what the name for the kinda person I need is. I suppose a machineist would be able to do it.

[Rocket Man]

you want to jump?

http://www.flybar.com/pages/home.html