Researchers at Carnegie Mellon and North Carolina State universities have come up with an unpowered device that reduces the energy spent on walking, potentially helping folks with limited lower body strength to get back a more natural gait. The device is modeled on the functionality of the calf muscle, which acts like a mechanical clutch that transfers repeating motion into forward locomotion. It includes a simple spring and a built-in clutch that are coordinated in sync with the person’s natural walking gait. Weighing in at just over a pound (500 grams), thanks to carbon-fiber construction, it’s about the weight of a boot and is natural to wear.

In an initial study, the researchers showed a reduction of seven percent in metabolic energy consumption when people wore the device compared to normal walking. While this might not sound like much, considering that evolution has spent many millennia perfecting our walking mechanics, it is quite an amazing achievement.

source:North Carolina State universities