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It's a single axis version of a system my group at NASA developed: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/pages.ashx/787/New%20wearable%20technology%20takes%20on%20
by asd4 4y ago
It's a single axis version of a system my group at NASA developed:
https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/pages.ashx/787/New%20wearable%20technology%20takes%20on%20the%20human%20shoulder https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/pages.ashx/787/New%20weara...
The internal application was to improve mobility in space suits. We had a partnership with some medical researchers looking to help patients with otherwise limited mobility.
Shoulders are difficult. The human body has a lot of amazing degrees of freedom. One of the biggest challenges was efficient and effective transfer of the assist forces to the body.
- marginalia_nu 4y agoA lot of the design of the human body sacrifices strength for mobility and range of motion. Most muscles have really unfortunate mechanical leverage, to the degree it's quite impressive we're so strong as we are. Adding to that, without completely butchering mobility is probably no easy task.
- HPsquared 4y agoThat's probably the secret of the shoulder, it's strong(-ish) in some directions and very weak in others.
- krferriter 4y agoAnd why people dislocate their shoulders so frequently, just doing like normal things. Someone I knew dislocated his shoulder swimming freestyle. Just happened.
- 2-718-281-828 4y agoI'm also impressed everytime I lift weights and think about how close the muscles attach to the joint providing very little leverage. On a side note - this is why chimps f.x. are so strong - their muscles attach further from the joints and by that provide more leverage.
- tomjakubowski 4y agoYep, and they vary somewhat from person to person. I think it's part of why some people are apparently stronger than they look: longer tendons give more leverage with less muscle mass.
- kenjackson 4y agoIs there any advantage to having muscle attachments closer to the joint?
- Tuna-Fish 4y agoRange of motion. You can pick up a stick, hold it above your head, and throw it with significant power and control. A chimp can't do that.
- kenjackson 4y agoI was thinking more within human variances. For example, I've seen athletes with high calf muscles who can jump really high. If there an advantage to those whose calf muscle stretch to the bottom of the leg? Do they have some increased range of motion that this helps with?
- silicon2401 4y ago> chimps f.x. Just a small note, that abbreviation seems extremely rare to me. You might have better readability by saying "e.g." which means the same thing, or just writing it out. It took me a while to figure out whether you were referring some body part belonging to chimps or something
- moffkalast 4y agochimps: f(x) = y^2
- pinkmuffinere 4y agoWow even after reading the above comment I still can't confidently piece together what "chimps f.x." means. Is it "chimps for example"?
- samatman 4y agoWhat's remarkable to me about this is how specialized our shoulder-arm linkage is for overhand throwing. A lot of the typical difference between the male and female upper body comes down to this specialization. There is some evidence of facial adjustment to punching, but we could hit much harder with a more chimp-like shoulder, this doesn't require knuckle walking: but we wouldn't throw a spear as far nor as accurately.
- youamericanloo 4y agoI think yours is multiple axis version of this one since this the topic ...