MIT builds real-life Doc Ock bionic arms

Published June 5, 2014 2:58pm

Admit it, Spider-Man fans: as much as we all love to hate supervillain Doctor Octopus to kingdom come, his robotic arms are just so cool!

Who wouldn't want to have an extra arm or two, or four? And make them bionically strength-enhanced while you're at it.

Thankfully, modern science is working to make this particular comic book fantasy a reality.

Scientists from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) d'Arbeloff Laboratory are working on Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRLs) that can act as a person's third and fourth arms.

IEEE Spectrum posted on YouTube a video of the robotic arms in action, moving in sync with the wearer's movements:

"Unlike conventional exoskeletons, these Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRL) act as third and fourth arms and therefore augment the workspace and the skills of the human," researchers Federico Parietti and Harry Asada said.

But they also indicated the wearable robotic arms are more for an "aircraft manufacturing setting."

The system is mounted on a backpack with straps and hip belt. It is designed not to interfere with human motion and allow the limbs to "act both as arms and as legs."

"All joints are controlled by DC brushless motors of the flat type. Circular hollow-section polyurethane torsion bars are placed between the gearhead output and the actuator output, realizing Series Viscoelastic Actuators (SVAs)," they said.

MIT researchers demonstrated the arms at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Hong Kong this week, it added.

But it noted it could be tricky to get the arms "to do what they're supposed to do without having to control them with your other arms, which would kind of defeat the purpose of the entire setup."

"Instead, the SRL watches what you're doing with your arms to decide how to move. It does that by monitoring two inertial measurement units (IMUs) that the user wears on the wrists. A third IMU sits at the base of the robot’s shoulder mount, to track the overall orientation and motion of the SRL," it said.

The researchers are now testing "behavioral modes" to program the limbs to do what they want, the report said.

"Once we combine the most significant behavioral modes we are able to control the robot such that, from the wearer's perspective, it behaves like an extension of his own body," said researcher Baldin Llorens-Bonilla.

IEEE said aircraft maker Boeing sponsored much of the research to find ways to prevent injuries to aging human aircraft builders. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News

Tags: massachusettsinstituteoftechnology, mit, bionics, spiderman, doctoroctopus