Argus Online - More Local News INSIDEBAYAREA ONLINE STORE CAREERS REAL ESTATE AUTO CLASSIFIEDS TRAVEL COMMUNITY Friday, April 09, 2004 Advertise | Subscribe | Contact Us EMAIL ARTICLE LINK TO ARTICLE PRINT ARTICLE Site Search JobsHomes Article Last Updated: Saturday, March 13, 2004 - 6:44:28 AM PST Enter search NURSING term Berkeley's OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION Click for details. 4/9/2004 exoskeletons give HOTEL - Fremont schools save on transport Advanced Search DOUBLETREE humans robot-like - Cruz's brother testifies to abuse strength - Board hires for three positions ADMINISTRATION MARKETPLACE - Newark volunteers vie for top honor OfficeTeam Real Estate Power limbs would help - Marchers take dire funding message to the streets Rentals soldiers, emergency workers ADMINISTRATIVE Automotive with heavy loads - Wife pleads guilty in beating death of 3-year-old son Click for details. CareerSite - Judge pleased by jury-selection pace SECURITY Classifieds By Michelle Locke, Associated - Double slaying still unsolved one year later Personals Press GUARDSMARK - Erma J. Kitchens enjoyed gardening Place an Ad BARTENDER Online Store BERKELEY -- Move over, Click for details. Bionic Man, and make room for BLEEX -- the Berkeley Lower Extremities Exoskeleton, NEWS with strap-on robotic legs designed to turn an ordinary human into a super strider. Caregiver The Araujo Trial Click for details. Local & Regional News Ultimately intended to help soldiers or firefighters carry heavy loads for long distances, "the design of this exoskeleton really benefits from human intellect and the strength of the The Peterson Trial WINDOW machine," says Homayoon Kazerooni, who directs the Robotics and Human Engineering More Local News INSTALLER Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Our Neighborhoods Click for details. Ray Orrock Photo Gallery The exoskeleton consists of a pair of mechanical, metal leg braces that include a power Lottery unit and a backpack-like frame. The braces are attached to a modified pair of Army boots All Listings and are also connected, although less rigidly, to the user's legs. Traffic Weather Livermore Obituaries More than 40 sensors and hydraulic mechanisms function like a human nervous system, $860,000, 4BD- constantly calculating how to distribute the weight being borne and create a minimal load 2.5BA SPORTS for the wearer. Baseball 2004 Oakland Raiders "There is no joystick, no keyboard, no push button to drive the device," says Kazerooni, a $1,350,000, A's professor of mechanical engineering. "The pilot becomes an integral part of the Commercial A's BRAND exoskeleton." Warriors Castro Valley 49ers In lab experiments, says Kazerooni, testers have walked around in the 100-pound $550,000, 3BD/2BA Giants exoskeleton plus a 70-pound backpack and felt as if they were carrying just 5 pounds. Livermore Sharks $415,000, 3BD-2BA Cal Sports Eventually, the device could help rescuers haul heavy equipment up high-rise buildings or Stanford Sports turn tired troops into striding supersoldiers. Livermore Columnists $579,900, 3BD- Prep Sports What it won't do is turn you into a Borg, the gadget-happy gladiators of "Star Trek" fame. 2.5BA Turn2 Forgotten Times "The exoskeleton is not going to magically transform people into killing machines," says 3517 Oak Knoll Blvd Latest Scores Kazerooni. "They're really good, it turns out, at enabling firefighters, soldiers, post- $419,000, 3BD- disaster rescue crews to carry heavy loads over great distances for hours." 1.5BA BUSINESS NEWS Oracle/PeopleSoft 9509 Peach St So, no cyborg cops. But at least you get Terminator togs. http://www.theargusonline.com/Stories/0,1413,83~1971~2015278,00.html (1 of 3)4/9/2004 8:33:19 AM Argus Online - More Local News MondayBusiness.com $315,000, 2BD-1BA Spotlight Video of the BLEEX in action, which can be viewed at http://www.me.berkeley.edu/hel/ Sunday Feature 3135 West St. bleex.htm, shows a steel-spiked symbiosis of man and machine, marching about to the Tax Time $395,000, 3BD/2BA techno-industrial drone of grinding motors. The next step for the BLEEX team is making the power source quieter and stronger and miniaturizing components. OP-ED Opinions/Editorial All Listings BLEEX is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon Reader's Letters research and development arm, and was among the projects being showcased at a Write a Letter DARPA tech symposium this week in Anaheim. Talk Back The project is one of scores in the field of robotics, which ranges from industrial machines BAY AREA LIVING that assemble cars to orthotics, surgical devices that activate or supplement weakened Berkeley Rep limbs or functions. Games Inside Out Excitement about robotics was fanned by this week's DARPA-sponsored Mojave Desert Food race for fully autonomous vehicles, and the field is making strides worldwide. Behind the Wheel TV Listings In Japan, a leader in robot research, Sony Corp. has developed a child-shaped walking Movie Listings robot, known as Qrio, and Honda Motor Co. has also developed a walking, talking Soap Opera Recaps humanoid robot. This spring, some Japanese companies plan to start marketing a "robot Travel suit," a motorized, battery-operated device intended to help old and infirm people move Horoscopes around. Special Reports The current favorite in the DARPA race came out of Carnegie Mellon University, where 100 Years of Flight professor Matthew Mason is working on intelligent robots including the Mobipulator, which Bond Series uses its wheels to move things as well as locomotion. Are We Safer Now? Separate and Unequal "There's just too much to do," says Mason. "Every time that there is an advance in computing, there are just so many more things that it becomes possible to do. Robotics is COMMUNITY really about interfacing computers to the physical world so that their sensors give them a Bay Area Best better concept of what's going on around them -- they can make interesting things happen What's Up instead of just sitting there in their little beige boxes." Almanac Kazerooni isn't offering test drives of the exoskeleton. But if he were, Mason would be EDUCATION interested. STAR Scores Great Schools "It looks really exciting," says Mason. "I'd like to try it on myself." 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