REX: independent mobility through hands-free robotic exoskeleton

"Rex Bionics Plc (The Rex Bionics Group) is the global technology leader in robotic exoskeletons (REX). Uniquely, REX® provides independent mobility to wheelchair users and other mobility impaired persons using advanced robotic technology, custom–designed electromechanical actuators, precision engineering, and specialised networking systems.

The key differentiator of REX is the fact that it has been designed from the outset to provide mobility to non–ambulatory wheelchair users rather than as a means to enable otherwise fit individuals to lift supra–physiological loads, enhance endurance or aid mobility of those able to walk with crutches.

The device is designed to enable all users to stand and walk, and REX Personal™ users to scale stairs and navigate slopes."

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Theo Jansen's Strandbeest Evolution

Les Automates Jaquet-Droz

"Réalisé principalement par Pierre Jaquet–Droz, l'Ecrivain est le plus compliqué des trois mécanismes. Assis devant un pupitre, l'automate tient une plume d'oie qu'il trempe dans l'encrier, puis il la secoue légèrement avant de commencer de dessiner les lettres sur le papier. Grâce à un mécanisme annexe, ses yeux suivent son travail. L'Ecrivain est capable de tracer un texte de 40 signes au maximum, répartis sur quatre lignes. La principale invention de son mécanisme est le système de programmation par disque, qui lui permet d'écrire des textes suivis sans intervention extérieure. Il est également possible de lui faire écrire n'importe quelle phrase, lettre par lettre."

(Musée d'art et d'histoire de Neuchâtel)

[A robotic draftsman which is able to write through following a programmable sequence of letters.]

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MIT OpenCourseWare: free online course materials

"MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web–based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity."

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Plustech's Walking Machine: stranger than fiction

"[Plustech's] walking machine adapts automatically to the forest floor. Moving on six articulated legs, the harvester advances forward and backward, sideways and diagonally. It can also turn in place and step over obstacles. Depending on the irregularity of the terrain, the operator can adjust both the ground clearance of the machine and heigh of each step.

Robots making their debut as futuristic machines in the movies are now starting to find their way into the real world as industrial machines."

(plustech.fi)

[Plustech is now Timberjack, a division of John Deere]

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