Exoskeleton Helps With Heavy Loads

March 11 -- How would you like to be able to climb your favorite mountain with a 100-pound backpack that feels like it weighs a little more than your lunch and an extra pair of shoes?

If Homayoon Kazerooni gets his wish, you won't have to wait more than a few years to hook up his "exoskeleton" and quite literally take a load off your back. Kazerooni is professor of mechanical engineering, and director of UC Berkeley's Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory, and he's got a contraption in his lab that will add mechanical muscles to your body without having to take a single steroid.

The Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton, known affectionately as "Exo" to Kazerooni was developed with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Pentagon's effort to fund research on projects that to some people might seem a bit over the top. But Kazerooni's Exo is serious stuff, with possible applications ranging from fire fighting to combat to mountain climbing.

Firefighter Tool?

In his crystal ball, he sees the day when a fire fighter might be able to charge up stairs carrying equipment that would normally be far to heavy to manage, or a medic might be able to single-handedly carry out a wounded colleague, or a rescue worker might be able to carry in enough food and supplies to satisfy the needs of a small community."

"This is a machine that does not require any push buttons, steering wheels, key boards, joy sticks, or anything like that," Kazerooni says. "You don't drive the machine. You become an integral part of Exo while you are walking, and Exo carries the load."

He admits it's a bit awkward at times, and it's not all that hard for someone else to push you over, along with your 100-pound backpack, but this is still pretty early in research that can only be described as pioneering.