Exoskeleton from improvised materials

Do you think you need to have millions of money or be a hefty industrial corporation to create an exoskeleton? Not necessarily, all you need is a pack of not the rarest parts, a couple of simple machines and a smart head with straight arms to put it together.

James “Hacksmith” Hobson, a handy guy from Canada, built an exoskeleton over the summer to lift a 78-pound load without much effort. The figure is not impressive, but because exoskeleton pneumatic cylinders operate at half pressure, its load capacity can be doubled by putting a more powerful compressor.



So far this design lacks support for the legs, but even such a result for a project like “How I spent the summer” is impressive. Unfortunately, the author of this uger gadget only conducts a video blog of the creation and I did not find any detailed text describing the technical details. It is clear from the video that:

1. The pneumatic cylinders fed by the compressor are used as drives. On the cylinder for flexion and extension.
2. The supporting frame is assembled by analogy with the frames for tourist backpacks, but for reliability it is welded from steel.
3. The shoulders and forearms are assembled with their square profile and connected to the frame through a pair of ball joints.
4. Feedback has not yet been provided, the system is controlled by the remote control in one of the hands.



Summarizing, I can say that the system is clearly no more complicated than a warehouse elevator, but the appearance is impressive. Here would be load cells with feedback for control, a frame for legs and cylinders for opening hands - and Matt Damon would envy.

All the author’s videos with detailed build history are here: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbncXbXlaNQccS1MMH2BJVyVWYQ6kGxZw

UPD. Replaced GIFs on video at the request of readers.