By: Nick Gambino
A lot could be said about how Marvel and superhero movies in general are nothing more than popcorn entertainment. Critics might say it’s escapism at best, as if that’s some sort of burn. In a world that at times feels like it’s burning down all around us, it’s nice to have some sort of reprieve, even if only for a couple hours.
The truth is these movies can do a lot more than entertain, they can also inspire. That’s the case with a handful of researchers in South Korea who have created an Iron Man suit that allows paraplegics to walk. They’re calling it the WalkON Suite F1.
“After watching Iron Man, I thought it would be great if I can help people with a robot in real life,” Park Jeong-su, a member of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) team, said.
The lightweight mechanical exoskeleton is designed to walk over to the person, clamp onto them and then walk the wearer to their intended destination which includes up and down stairs and around objects.
Easily the biggest game changer here is that the robot can come to you and doesn’t require another person to help switch the person into the suit. Even if the person is in a wheelchair, it will be able to clamp on and help the person out and into the suit.
Keeping the wearer in an upright walking position requires straps or clamps throughout the legs and waist as well as special sensors in the feet and upper body that allows the suit to predict where they intend to go. These sensors are processing 1,000 signals every second which presumably uses a lot of processing power.
The WalkON Suite F1 robot also comes equipped with cameras to account for exactly where obstacles and stairs are located. This is particularly important if the wearer has limited scope of vision due to being a full-body paraplegic.
