We've all been there, right? Elbow-deep in a task, both hands occupied with something that can't be dropped, and in need of one more element to get the job done. Two hands just aren't enough sometimes.
Not to worry, researchers are on the problem, and their solution has just a bit more oomph behind it than most of us probably need.
It's absolutely premature to say that this will turn you into a certain Spider-man villain, but their wearable robotic arm is drawing some comparisons all the same, and it's likely because they've amped their arm up enough that it can punch through a wall.
The extra arm fits around the wearer's waist and is designed with the goal of "mimicking the performance of a human arm in a multitude of industrial and domestic applications."
It sounds like it would be uncomfortable, but much of the bulk - in particular, the power pack - remains on the ground. It's not operated by the wearer, either. Instead, it's operated by a second person with a handheld controller.
It weighs about 4 kilos, which is roughly the same as an average human arm, can lift up to 5 kilos, and moves at up to 3.4 meters per second, with a slight range of motion restriction intended to keep the operator from smacking the wearer in the face.
As researcher Catherine Véronneau told IEEE Spectrum, wearing the arm is "not too bad having this arm on my hips, since it’s only 4.2 kg (without payload) and it is located near my center of mass (to reduce inertia).
"I get used to it quickly, and I can compensate for some of the movements (x, y, and z translational movements), but I still have some remaining issues to compensate for torsion movements (like if the arm is hitting a tennis ball with a racket), which is funny! We also noticed that the harness needs to be rigidly connected to the body, because if there is some backlash between the harness and the body, it can be uncomfortable."
One day they'd like to increase the mobility of the arm, possibly by putting the power pack on top of an autonomous vehicle. They'd also like the arm to be able to work independently without a second human controlling it.
"Making a third arm (or any SRL [supernumerary robotic limb]) autonomous involves understanding the human intent behind actions, which is really dependent on the application," Véronneau said. "But if we want that SRL to be multifunctional, it requires some AI or intelligent controller to detect what the human wants to do, and how the SRL could be complementary to the user (and act as a coworker)."
Among other things, they're trying to take a fake beer stabilizing robotic arm created for a viral ad and turn it into reality.
"The major challenges associated with this stunt is that we need hip positions and orientations (or the base of the arm) in real-time to stabilize the end-effector," said Véronneau. "And having this measure implies an absolute way to measure it (cameras, or GPS, etc). We are now working on it!"
h/t: IEEE Spectrum
