Exoskeleton

Built to help people, the exoskeleton needs neural control, pack enough power for reasonable autonomy, and be comfortable to wear.

Radu Motisan

Following Follow project

Liked Like project

Become a Hackaday.io member

Just one more thing

To make the experience fit your profile, pick a username and tell us what interests you.

OK, I'm done! Skip

Similar projects worth following

614 views

0 comments

6 followers

8 likes

The 2016 Hackaday Prize

View Gallery

Description

An exoskeleton built for humans is similar to the biological external exoskeleton of some animals, except that this one comes to complement the locomotive capabilities of the person who wears it, instead of being a must have like the internal skeleton is.
It has two purposes. One is to give mobility back to those with disabilities, helping them move, react and live life as normal as possible. Then there's that part all the Iron Man fans dreamed of, having augmented attributes and improving the normal human capabilities even further in terms of strength, speed or endurance.
My idea is to have it designed in a way that is useable under clothes, and works seamlessly with the body. But this is another challenge in terms of materials and engineering, I might not address for the first prototypes.

Details

A short intro

This is a project I wanted to start for a long time, I even mentioned the idea in an interview with @Mike Szczys from two years ago: http://hackaday.com/2014/07/03/thp-hacker-bio-radu-motisan/

At that time I was developing the uRADMonitor network, that had a presence here on HaD and even got as far as being a Finalist in HackaDayPrize2015: http://hackaday.com/2015/10/05/10-finalist-projects-prove-we-can-save-the-world/

This time, the stakes are even higher (I'm saying this each year, I wonder where it's going). To be honest I'm not sure I'll be capable of finalising this non-trivial challenge. I'm still caught with uRADMonitor, having limited time and resources. Still I'll do my best to try, because one purpose in life is to better ourselves, and another is to help others. I feel this challenge targets both nicely.

Feel free to show your support by following or liking this project, or even better with some feedback in the comments section if your time allows it.