Development of a robot arm that creates third and fourth arms to humans is ongoing

Terminator-like prosthesis made of carbon fiberYaProsthesis made by 3D printerAlthough a robot arm that supplements the lost arm is devised, it is made as "the arm for when the arm is not enough" to add the third and fourth arms to the human "Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRL)"is.

SRL Concept and Design | d'Arbeloff Laboratory
http://darbelofflab.mit.edu/?q=node/22

Here's That Extra Pair of Robot Arms You've Always Wanted - IEEE Spectrum
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/heres-that-extra-pair-of-robot-arms-youve-always-wanted

The state of the moving robot arm can be confirmed from the following movie.

MIT Robot on the Shoulder Demo - YouTube


A figure of a man on the screen.


Bend over to get something out.


Apparently it seems to stick the plate. Having a black plate on the head ... ...


The robot arm grew steadily from behind.


Assistance to support the plate.


The robot arm firmly supports the center of the plate while the male screws the screw with the screwdriver.


Once completed, the robot arm left the plate.


this isMassachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)Alberov LaboratoryFederico Parietti and Harry Asada and others developed. The official name is Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRL), and the concept design drawn in the early stages of research was like this.


Several prototypes of SRL are made, and it is done in Hong Kong to appear in the above movieICRA 2014It is the newest one that was released at the type where the arm extends from the shoulder. Help us work overhead or hold bags with both hands and open the door when we say "I am short of hands!"


The arm can be replaced and the weight is 4.5 kg. Three-axis gyroscope and accelerometer detect three-dimensional angular velocity and accelerationInertial measurement deviceBy putting the user on the arm, the SRL predicts the movement of the user and determines the movement of the arm. For that reason, the arm is moving according to the movement of the user in the current prototype, but the research team is currently programming to allow the arm to move freely.

You can check the movement of the arm according to the movement of the user's arm from the following movie.

MIT Robot on the Shoulder Control - YouTube


When you extend both hands sideways, the arm also extends sideways.


Bending your arms ......


It also tracks the behavior of raising it slightly and spreading it again.


On the other hand, there are also types where the arm extends from the waist, and this can be used for work done at a relatively low position. This robot arm is a mechanism to attach to the back of the user using a belt, the main body is composed of a backpack unit and a robot arm, and the unit isActuatorAlong with the user's waist.


This research develops aerospace equipmentBoeingIt is attached to the sponsor. Because aircraft manufacturing involves many tasks dealing with heavy objects, as technicians often get injured. The type of SRL to be installed on the waist can be used not only as the third and fourth arm but also as the third and fourth foot when the scaffold is bad. For example, in the following pictures, men use SRLs to drill holes while supporting the aircraft.


The figure below shows that the SRL supports the user's weight as the third and fourth legs.


whyExoskeletonIs it not an arm? Because the degree of freedom is higher for the arm alone than for the exoskeleton that wraps the whole body. If research proceeds, in addition to improving the efficiency of aircraft production, it seems to be able to open doors of new fields such as "ski / boxing" fighting with fists while skiing.