change makes life interesting

Friday, August 7, 2009

Elegant Engineering



Dean Kamen's group at DEKA was presented with a problem by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). What impresses me is the attention the engineers give to the suble and supple aspects of their design and the ability to translate thoughts of motion, almost, to impulse or the macro functions of the arm. Kamen is well known for having designed the Segway and the iBOT Mobility System - a wheelchair robot that climbs stairs and morphs itself to overcome obstacles traditional wheelchair cannot overcome.