减少人类行走的能源成本,使用无动力外骨架
Steven H Collins1, M Bruce Wiggin2, Gregory S Sawicki2
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
Nature
|April 2, 2015
概括
一个没有动力的脚外骨架可以通过被动协助小腿肌肉来降低行走的代谢成本. 这项创新提高了人类运动效率,而不需要外部能量输入.
科学领域:
- 生物力学 生物力学
- 人类的机动运动
- 可穿戴技术可穿戴技术
背景情况:
- 人类的运动是高度进化的和高效的.
- 外骨架可以减少行走期间的代谢能量,但通常需要输入功率.
- 研究被动方法来改善行走经济至关重要.
研究的目的:
- 为了确定一个没有动力的脚外骨是否可以降低人类行走期间的新陈代谢率.
- 评估人类行走的被动辅助设备的效率改进.
主要方法:
- 开发了一种轻量级,弹性,没有动力的脚外骨,配有机械离合器.
- 该设备被动地储存和释放能量,与小腿肌肉和阿基里斯肌并行.
- 测量了健康个体在自然条件下行走的新陈代谢能量消耗,有或没有外骨.
主要成果:
- 没有动力的脚外骨架将步行的代谢成本降低了7.2 ± 2.6%.
- 该装置通过被动地减轻肌肉力量而起作用,而不会消耗化学或电能.
- 效率的提高与动力外骨所取得的效率相当.
结论:
- 像没有动力的脚外骨架这样的被动辅助设备可以显著改善人类的步行经济.
- 对被动机制的进一步研究为增强机动人机系统提供了一个有希望的途径.
- 即使是高度优化的生物系统,如人类的步态,也可以通过新的机械干预来进一步改进.
更多相关视频
相关概念视频
Carbon Skeletons
Life on Earth is carbon-based, as all macromolecules that make up living organisms contain carbon atoms. All organic compounds have a carbon backbone. Each carbon atom is tetravalent and can bond with four other atoms, making it an extraordinarily flexible component of biological molecules. Because carbon’s valence electrons are stable, it rarely becomes an ion. As the carbon chain increases in length, structural modifications such as ring structures, double bonds, and branching side chains...
Production Efficiency
Net production efficiency (NPE) is the efficiency at which organisms assimilate energy into biomass for the next trophic level. Due to low metabolic rates and less energy spent on thermoregulatory processes, the NPE of ectotherms (cold-blooded animals) is 10 times higher than endotherms (warm-blooded animals).
Energy to Drive Translocation
Mitochondrial protein import is powered by two distinct energy sources: ATP hydrolysis and electrochemical potential across the inner membrane. Newly synthesized precursors are bound by cytosolic chaperones of the Hsp70 family, which guide them to the import receptors on the mitochondrial surface. Utilizing the energy of ATP hydrolysis, Hsp70 chaperones transfer these precursors to the TOM receptors on the mitochondrial outer membrane.
Generally, polypeptides are unfolded by two distinct...
Generally, polypeptides are unfolded by two distinct...
Power Expended by a Constant Force
The relationship between work done and the time taken to do it can be explained using the concept of power. For example, several sprinters in a race may have the same velocity when they reach the finish line, therefore doing the same amount of work, but the winner does it in the least amount of time. Thus, power is defined as the rate of doing work. Since work can vary as a function of time, the average power is defined as the work done during a time interval, divided by the time interval.
Mechanical Efficiency of Real Machines
The mechanical efficiency of a machine is a fundamental concept that describes how effectively a machine can convert input work into output work. According to this concept, the efficiency of a machine is equal to the ratio of the output work to the input work. An ideal machine, meaning a machine that has no energy losses, has an efficiency of one. This implies that the input work and the output work are equal.
However, in reality, no machine can be truly ideal, and all of them experience some...
However, in reality, no machine can be truly ideal, and all of them experience some...
Conservation of Mechanical Energy
The mechanical energy E of a system is the sum of its potential energy U and the kinetic energy K of the objects within it. What happens to this mechanical energy when only conservative forces cause energy transfers within the system—that is, when frictional and drag forces do not act on the objects in the system? Also assume that the system is isolated from its environment; in other words no external force from an object outside the system causes energy changes inside the system.
When a...
When a...


