IF YOU see an elderly person bounding down your high street wearing what looks like a pneumatic diving suit, blame Hiroshi Kobayashi.
The roboticist, from the Science University of Tokyo, has designed a body suit that gives frail people the strength to get around much more easily, with greater control over their movements. He hopes his suit will become as ubiquitous as the Zimmer frame.
The project gets its inspiration from previous research into steel 鈥渆xoskeletons鈥� designed to help carers and nurses lift patients (New 杏吧原创, 28 July 2001, p 22). While such devices still need hefty power sources, Kobayashi鈥檚 suit has its own power supply, giving wearers more independence.
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The outside of the Lycra suit is covered in pairs of inflatable 鈥渕uscles鈥� which assist the wearer鈥檚 real muscles. When they inflate, they help the wearer to move their limbs with greater strength and stability. The power comes from compressed air, stored in a series of small canisters distributed about the suit, or, if the user is strong enough, in a single tank carried on their back.
Each artificial muscle consists of an inflatable rubber tube surrounded by a flexible metal mesh connected at each end to the joints on the suit, just as real muscles are connected to bones via tendons. When the tube inflates, the mesh bulges, which in turn pulls each end in and shortens the artificial muscle.
For instance, a pair of these tubes connected between the elbow and shoulder joints of the suit would boost the power of a frail person鈥檚 biceps and triceps. Pressure sensors all over the suit would tell the artificial muscles when to kick in.
The beauty of the suit, according to Kobayashi, is that the wearer鈥檚 own bones and joints act as supports and fulcrums for the inflatable muscles.
鈥淭his idea sounds fantastic,鈥� says Bhanu Ramaswamy a physiotherapist at the Northern General Hospital, in Sheffield, and secretary for AGILE, a British association of physiotherapists which specialises in helping elderly people. 鈥淭he only danger would be if the suit acted like a tourniquet,鈥� she warns, as it could cause problems for people suffering with poor circulation.
Physiotherapists already use tight garments to provide extra support to elderly people鈥檚 limbs, explains Ramaswamy. 鈥淪o to have your whole body in one sounds in theory like a good idea.鈥�
So far, Kobayashi has built only the top half of the suit. The legs will be added soon. He also has to create a really reliable computerised network of pressure sensors to let the wearer control the muscles at will. And he is experimenting with voice activation for some muscle groups, too.
But we shouldn鈥檛 expect superhuman capabilities. The muscles are only strong enough to carry their own weight, the weight of the person鈥檚 limbs, and that of the compressed air cylinders. And without a metal frame you can鈥檛 make them too strong. 鈥淥therwise bones will break,鈥� Kobayashi says.