Dyson's first prize was a $ 2,000 Titan Arm project.

The Dyson Award for 2013 received annual winners: the first place was taken by a project of 4 mechanic students of the University of Pennsylvania with a robotic exoskeleton Titan Arm.

As the name implies, Titan Arm is a wearable exoskeleton for the human hand, allowing you to increase the strength of your hands up to 18 kg or (the project has two purposes) to help people recover their upper limb mobility after injuries or accidents. Technically, Titan Arm consists of two segments - a power block worn on the back and control electronics and, in fact, the skeleton itself, attached to the user's arm. In addition, the project has another important advantage - the creators more than radically managed to reduce the cost of developments of this kind: from $ 100,000 to $ 2000. Weight Titan Arm is 9 kg, which, as the authors say, even "less than the average school backpack."

Titan Arm looks like a person on a man like this:
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A lithium-polymer battery that works for 8 hours and requires 30 minutes to recharge is used as a power plant — while it is not difficult to perform something like a hot-swappable battery and continue working in the exoskeleton. Titan Arm can be worn on almost any person, thanks to the flexible frame and straps with which it is attached to the body. The Titan Arm parts themselves were made using the ubiquitous 3D print now.

Students-authors of the project, having received the deserved $ 48,260 as the first prize, promise to release Titan Arm as an open project so that everyone who wishes can join the work on it.

Video from Titan Arm below:



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