DECRYPTION – American researchers have designed smart splints capable of reducing the energy expenditure associated with walking, by adapting to each individual’s pace.
To walk faster, further and without fatigue, Charles Perrault had imagined boots of seven leagues. 21st century scientistse century, more prosaic, contrived to develop personalized ankle exoskeletons. “And that’s a lot less obvious than it seems in Marvel superhero movies,” jokes Steven Collins, professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University (California), co-author of an innovative study on the subject published this Wednesday in Nature.
The subject of the publication is a personalized walking assistance exoskeleton. Concretely, it looks like an articulated and motorized splint, coupled with sensors that allow it to be adjusted, directly, to the user’s gait. The 300g battery is waist-worn, providing 30 minutes of battery life. The maneuvers team’s masterstroke consists in having managed to “take” the device out of the research laboratory and make it usable in real conditions…
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