University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Ali Seireg was known for his research in biomechanics, or treating the human body as a machine. Among his achievements was the development of a mathematical model of the entire human musculoskeletal system, showing how muscles and joints work and interact. In the early 1970s, he conducted groundbreaking research into the use of power exoskeletons for rehabilitation.
During an engineering exhibition in 1971, people first saw a three-legged robot powered by compressed air. This mechanism was created to simulate a walking person. The third leg was necessary to prevent the mechanism from overturning, because this miracle weighed almost 120 kg. The designer-technician of this miracle was Seireg's assistant Jack Grundmann.
The first * three-legged * model.
Model No. 2.
The second model of the exoskeleton worked on electricity according to the "puppet" principle: the cables from the control center located in the knapsack behind the shoulders forced the joints of the iron skeleton to bend and unbend at the right time: so that the piece of iron moved almost exactly like a normal person moves.
Both the first and second prototypes could move exclusively forward and backward. The third model would have to perform the rest of the movements and be unlike the first two smaller ones. After all, the inventors sought to create a system that would allow a person who can no longer use their legs to walk forward, backward, turn, sit, stand and walk up and down stairs. Well, and have a "cosmetic function": the entire mechanism must be able to be hidden under clothes.
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