[Music]
[On screen text] The Neurobionics Lab at U-M set out to do something extreme:
engineer an exoskeleton to increase someone's jump.
The lab decided to create a competition to see if this were possible.
But first they needed an exoskeleton.
>> Rouse: We needed some help so we contacted our friends at Dephy.
They are kind of advancing the field and have some of the best exoskeletons that have been
developed.
They are really excited about partnering.
I think they they have some early success developing kind of a jumping-style controller.
They wanted to turn the control reins over to us and we'll use their hardware and we'll
develop a system that hopefully can do some pretty neat things.
[Text] The team will also be putting their work to the ultimate test versus a collegiate athlete.
>> Henshaw: In high school I was the state champion for Michigan and then in college
I've gone to Big Tens I think every single year.
I mean I've been training since I was like 10 to go as high as I can so they're gonna
have to make sure that they can get as explosive of a robot as possible.
I personally do not think the robotics team will be able to beat me in jumping.
>> Rouse: The pressure is: we know it's possible.
They've shown it.
I've worn it.
So now we have to kind of step up to the plate and develop that system hopefully maybe even
a little bit better.
[Music]
>> Bywater: We want the spring torque when we squat down to be like high enough that
it's applying torque but not so high that it's pulling your ankles far off the ground
because then it's hard to get the angle you need to jump.
You can think of it as like loading a spring and then you let the spring go and it just
explodes into there, sort of thing.
>> Rouse: Maybe like loading it and then letting it go but when you let it go you start up
from a compressed amount even further so you've got a boost of energy but also I think, like
in addition to solving the control problems, a big challenge we're going to face is how
to provide the torque in a way that's helpful.
The overarching plan is to have the exoskeleton act like a spring at first and we'll do that
until we're really comfortable with that.
Then we'll start adding net positive mechanical energy so actually like turning into a motor
trying to actually boost the person out beyond what a spring could do.
I think this challenge is important for a few reasons. I think it's good to get robotics
in the spotlight.
I think it's good to demonstrate areas of robotics that are accessible and interesting.
And then I think it's good to showcase areas of robotics that require the human and robot
to cooperate and that this is an excellent version of that.
The human and robot have to operate together to increase someone's vertical jumping height.
That can't be two separate systems.
They're intimately coupled and the person has to kind of leverage that system to get
what they want.
And so I think that's a really important thing to showcase in robotics as well.
[Music]
[Text] Once experimentations was done it was time for the final test.
>> Bywater: I was really happy with what they did.
Both of our jumpers got two extra inches.
>> Henshaw: I was shocked.
I was like wow, okay.
Especially with jumping in those shoes and all that, the fanny pack and all that.
>> Bywater: We decided to design this as a fun entertainment thing and hope that in the
future it could be something that improves mobility for people, you know, maybe in combination
with walking or running something like that.
>> Medrano: These exoskeletons were actually designed to help someone increase the efficiency
of their walking so they make you burn less calories, the idea being if you burn less
calories you can walk for longer or carry a heavier load and not get as tired.
Beyond that though, of course, we see a lot of success for exoskeletons to restore someone's
ability to walk if they suffered a debilitative stroke or a disease akin to that.
So I think the feature is pretty bright for this technology in that respect as well.
>> Best: There's certainly a lot of things we can do with them that I think we're just
getting started with.
So you could you can imagine an exo that's helping you but you could also imagine an
exo that does the opposite and makes you train as like a resistance exo.
So there are all sorts of things that you can do in the rehab space to help you recover
faster.
[Motor actuation]
[Clapping]