Prosthesis human-piloted racing robot aims to usher in a new sport

ROBOTICS

Lakshmi Sandhana

January 17th, 2014 Image Gallery:  https://newatlas.com/prosthesis-human-piloted-racing-robot/30501/#gallery  

Describing it as a cross between a gorilla, a T-rex and an excavator, the aptly-named Anti-Robot, Prosthesis, is Tippett's idea of a wearable sports machine where the pilot acts as the athlete, controlling the machine by using their entire body. To do this, the pilot climbs into the 3,500-kg (7,700-lb) mechanical quadruped, using a retractable ladder built into its front.

Once strapped into the seat with a five-point harness, the pilot will be able to slide their arms and legs into a full body exo-skeletal interface. Gripping the controls with the hands will lock the pilot into the interface and activate the control system. The entire setup will leave the pilot free to move both arms and legs, enabling control of the machine and even becoming one with it, in a sense.

"Prosthesis will directly follow the movements of the pilot's limbs," explains Tippett. "Their arms control the outside legs and their legs control the inside legs. The machine will lope like a gorilla."

Each massive leg has two joints and can move either forward or backward. Controlling all of the eight joints spread out across its four legs will require the pilot to use their entire body. To make racing with Prosthesis as thrilling as possible, Tippett decided to have the machine physically interact with the pilot and vice versa. The special exo-skeletal interface, or exo-frame, will give pilots direct physical feedback on the machine's condition through its suspension systems, allowing them to operate it on an intuitive physical level.

"The force on each foot will be transmitted directly, mechanically to the pilot's arms and legs through the exo-frame for every step," Tippett tells us. "Not violently or ever in a way that could hurt the pilot, but the pilot will know by feel, just exactly how much weight is on each foot at all times."

The real-time, user-controlled suspension allows the pilot to instantly stiffen the suspension of each leg independently. For instance, if the machine is leaning too far in one direction, the pilot can simply stiffen that side. With practice, they can even anticipate when one leg needs to be stiffer and adjust things before the impact even occurs, kind of like bracing for a big step at the end of a flight of stairs.

The position of the machine's four limbs will mirror the pilot's four limbs and the machine will amplify the pilot's movements by 60 to 100 times their original force. In time, pilots won't need to think about where the machine's legs are, they will just feel it, much like how one doesn't need to look at the wheels when they ride a bike. Tippett says that this is essential, since the pilot won't have a clear view of the machine's legs most of the time and will need to be much more focused on what they are about to step on next.

Gaining the skills to ace moving or racing with Prosthesis will depend on how well the pilot masters the innovative air spring mechanism built into the hand grips, that controls valves in the suspension system. Each of the four triggers at the pilot's fingertips corresponds to one of the four legs. Pilots will be able to optimize the machine's walking efficiency on-the-fly and fine-tune its performance by changing the suspension response of every leg.

 https://newatlas.com/prosthesis-human-piloted-racing-robot/30501/

I wonder how long it takes before one of these things is armored up and armed?