Blast From The Past: “SpringWalker” Running Exoskeleton

Robotics Wearables

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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@seanragan

March 22nd, 2011 6

I am indebted to a commenter on yesterday’s skeletonics post for reminding me of G. John Dick and Eric A. Edwards’ SpringWalker spring-assisted lower-body exoskeleton. Using the slightly half-baked terms I proposed yesterday, the SpringWalker is another notable example of a “passive” exoskeleton, i.e. one that amplifies the speed and range of a motion, but does not actually add power. An oldie but a goodie, the SpringWalker was patented back in 1991, when the term of a US patent was still 17 years, and is thus now out of patent. [Thanks, DanYHKim!]