I am currently in the process of building a pair of exoskeletal legs of my own design. They are shaped to increase leg output, so the wearer will be able to run faster and jump higher with the same energy exerted. I have yet to create a working model, but starting this upcoming Sunday, a couple friends of mine and I are getting together to discuss how to do it. Materials are expensive (700+USD just for the first pair) so finishing soon will be questionable. Blueprints coming in about an hour. Thanks for reading.

sounds incredibly dangerous. how will you take stress on the spine into account hmm? if a human is exerting more force from a leap or a landing it'll damage the spine more than athletic activities are already known too. look at basketball players and track&field athletes who suffer at the age of 50 from serious back problems already hmm? it seems odd that materials are so incredibly cheap as well hmm? 700USD hmm? what do you plan on building it out of? used mattress springs and sneakers? also running faster? that'll take an immense toll on the human knees which are already fragile as is. if you really want to build upgrades to the human body realize that it functions as a whole unit not just as individual parts. if you want to jump higher you need to protect your spine and head, if you want to run faster how will you keep your knees from buckling from the strain? that will take even more materials, and we're not talking about cheap materials either hmm?

>>2 spring steel, aluminum cuffs, foam padding, and paracord straps. I am aware of the danger, which is why I personally will become my own test subject. Its mostly flat springs and cuffs, but there is no contact with foot to ground. Yoy say cheap, but 700 dollars is a lot for a kid with no job, from a lower-middle class family, and with no actual electronic components in the legs. Realize this is also a prototype; the complete version may cost twice as much.

Doesn't need to be expensive to be effective.

My only true concern is if the weight cancels out the enhancement.

It is not increasing the force exerted by the human muscles, it is adding spring tension pressure to the ground while the muscle tension pushes down already, keeping work done the same while the exolegs add to the power already there.

Simple physics, really.

I thought something like this has already been invented. They're essentially super stilts that let you jump really high and run really fast. They cost over $1000.

Yes, but cars also exist too. Yet there is multiple vehicular designs. So I think the same can be done to exolegs, yeah? And the way I designed my pair (with hope) the user will be around (or hopefully less than) four inches/10-12 cm off the ground. Making them more like legs than stilts. That and the springs on mine are metal instead of woven and stretched fiberglass, and are affixed to the side of the leg and not the back. The ground contact on mine is greater as well, allowing for more balance than the small pads indicated above. Plus, I'm not planning to market these, so copyright infingement is questionable. That, and I just thought you guys would find it even a little cool to know a 17 year old dollars member is making machinery it took a 35 year old man with knowledge superior to mine AND his son to do.

Oh right. The plans I promised. Its still in prototype stage, and this IS still the first design, so don't criticise it too harshly if you can help it. I was maybe thinking of taking the bulk off by modifying a smaller part.

Sidenote for the future: I'm not an inventor. Id call myself an innovator. Taking things that already exist and adding to them or combining them. I'm not original. I just like to think the way I arrange things is original.

looks legit to me. Go for it. If they work you should make a video.

>>8 thanks man. Will do.

I believe one problem you will encounter is the weight factor. Make sure the force exerted will not be effected by the weight of the device otherwise you could have negative returns.

>>10 already taken this possibility into account. I shall have a second (or perhaps third) party record timings of a 50 yard dash with and without the legs. Thank you though ^^

Hmm.. I'm a little doubting. Nothing comes without rist, I suppose. I say go for it aswell.

I-I was thinking; do you know the prosthetic leg type that allows amputees to run? I heard that they are making the same type for ordinary people that acts like a Pogo stick. I h-hope that helps.

>>13 actually, I based this design off of that leg. The one that looks kinda like an upside down question mark.

Update: no materials have been donated, therefore no headway has been made.

>>15 If you're sure of your idea, try kick-starter.

>>16 "kick... starter"?

>>17 motherfucking google it

Because our dear friend Mr. Sleepology is not feeling inclined to post something that contributes to the conversation, allow me to instead. Kickstarter is a website where anyone can post a project and request funding and anyone can fund them. People have raised millions in just the last year alone. You should give it a look.

That's how hundreds of indie games are being funded, how new technological innovations gain steam, and where the Oculus Rift gained all it's money.

>>19 >>20 thanks guys, but ill be fine doing this. I just need some soda cans, and since people around here throw those out all the time, ill be fine. There's also a local smith shop that might let me use his stuff, who knows. Its not the money I need; just the stuff.

>>21

No, no, it's the money.

>>22 why?

>>23 In a capitalist society, everything proper requires money.

>>24 collecting recyclables that have little other purpose than to be re-recycled requires money?

I guess it. Makes sense that I could walk around and collect cans for free from the schools garbage area into a cardboard box I found would require a lot of money. After all, free stuff is really expensive.

This actually sounds pretty interesting. I'm no biophysicist so I can't give any input without seriously thinking on it for a long while, but I hope something good comes out of it!

Just be sure to patent it if it does :U

>>25
If you're collecting the stuff to use as materials you're just like little kids who adds cans to their bikes and think it's something worth while.

If you mean to earn money, you'll be long since dead if you think that will help fund you.

The level of thought process here makes me wonder if you're even intelligent enough to make such an invention?

>>25 I don't get why you would force yourself to design and build such a complex machine that you were taking of out of recycled cans for free, when you can literally have a decent shot of pulling funding right off the net.

I just don't get your logic, is too much effort for you?

>>28 theres probably a lot a pressure to suceed involved with that, whereas with just the basic essentials for their own purposes will give more time based freedom and less fear of failure

>>29 He seems pretty determined, though.

>>30 Well I would suppose you'd want to prototype it first before finalizing anything. Everything looks solid but that's all theory until put in practice, right? At any rate, I don't see anything wrong with going at it slow until you're sure.

Forgive me if I missed the point, by the way, I've only skimmed the thread.

>>31 Yeah, in the end it's completely up to him, spose.

As a kid I was ridiculed a lot for relying on people to help me learn the simpler tasks. I didn't learn right from left till I was almost six. My view of the world is skewed differently than most around me and so this reliance was necessary to my survival; after all, a kid who couldn't teach himself was practically useless.

I think this eventually led to me breeding a swcret hatred for relying on people. I haven't in I dunno how long (at least for important things, like physics) probably just to prove both them and myself wrong that I don't need anybody to help me do things nobodys done before. I've used a calculator in geometry a total of about 20 days, while during tests all I hear is people pushing buttons.

So, I've decided I'm gonna take a blowtorch to a stainless-steel bowl full of aluminum cans and melt those bitches down into what I need. Then pay for the spring steel with money from a job I'm probably going to start looking for soon. Then merge accordingly and work from there.

oh, and that might have contributed to my hatred of humans. Not the beings themselves, no; the signals that bounce around in their brains.

Perhaps I should start making molds while I collect metal. And wait to hear back from the publisher. And take some asprin for this wicked migrane.

love exoskelaton legs (dont care about my spelling)

...::...

Deciding to make basic shapes/mold positives out of plastic, melting empty plastic bottles and reshaping the output to fit my personal use. And so it begins.

>>34 But it looks like you care about what others think of your spelling.

How are the exoskelaton legs coming along?

Me and my friend are doing the same thing

>>37 Not very well, as of late. Many projects and loads of schoolwork popped up, hindering any progress I could have made, and so far it seems the only time I will have to do anything will be when I borrow my granddads blowtorch he never uses before I make any real progress. Oh, and some sand and plywood.

>>38 Really? Feel free to add progress at will, I may have made the thread, but I'm perfectly fine with others posting their concepts up here too haha. Tell us how it goes!

Great idea, please post some pictures once ou've made some progress.