This robotics researcher might have something in just your size From: MIT Technology Review - 09/2015 - page 38 Conor Walsh's running shorts are part of an exosuit for the legs. Sensors in the suit measure a person’s movement and then tell a motor to pull on cables attached to the fabric in order to assist the muscles at the right moment. The exosuit could support soldiers as they walk, to increase their endurance. Or it could help patients who have trouble walking. “For people whose limbs don’t work very well, there’s really no good technologies that exist today,” says Walsh, a faculty member at Harvard and its Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. In a video of one trial, a stroke patient walks visibly faster, and with a more symmetrical gait, when the robot is turned on. Using fabric and cables keeps the exosuit lightweight. But the suit also needs to fit just right, so it can apply forces to the body without restricting movement. “The textile component is probably the most critical,” says Walsh. Hence the sewing machines. Read the entire article at: http://www.technologyreview.com/lists/innovators-under-35/2015/inventor/conor-walsh Links: Conor Walsh http://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/walsh Walsh to advance wearable robot design http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2014/09/walsh-to-advance-wearable-robot-design