OTHER LAB, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: NSFIIP141659

Description

Traditional design approaches to developing exoskeleton systems are not capable of demonstrating the performance improvements currently envisioned by TALOS. At the masses currently envisioned for TALOS, no anthropomorphic exoskeleton device has been demonstrated that can improve dynamic human capabilities. Some are able to improve slow tasks such as peak lifting capabilities, but in all cases these devices have hindered the agility and performance of the operator. However, these dynamic tasks are critical to the everyday function of the SOF warfighter and accordingly critical to the design performance of the device. It points to a major technical limitation towards reaching the programs goals: how do we add enough power to a human such that it overcomes the weight of the exoskeleton and ultimately the load of armor added to the warfighter. To this end, we are focusing on the development of a TALOS device and seeking to develop a limited armor mobile exoskeleton for performance augmentation. Specifically, the design will initially be tailored towards augmenting the user's peak performance capabilities for dynamic tasks. The primary insight motivating this work is that the development of ultra-light exoskeletons with high specific power actuators would provide the best opportunity to develop such a system.