Companies and research institutes are developing a vest that will read muscle tension and deduce stress levels at any given time, as part of the EU-funded CONTEXT project.

‘Wearable electronics’ are at the core of the vest. Sensors woven into fabric register the electrical excitation of muscle fibres, while thin conducting metallic fibres pass the signals to an electronic analysis system.

Human muscle tension changes with stress levels – the greater the stress, the more likely the muscles are to produce a synchronous twitching effect. Although this is barely perceptible, the electrodes register the change.

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Individuals with severe disabilities could lead more independent lives with the help of an assistive technology developed by engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

To operate the Tongue Drive system, potential users only need to be able to move their tongues.

Maysam Ghovanloo, an assistant professor at the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who helped develop the device, explained: “We chose the tongue to operate the system because unlike hands and feet, which are controlled by the brain through the spinal cord, the tongue is directly connected to the brain by a cranial nerve that generally escapes damage in severe spinal cord injuries or neuromuscular diseases.

“Tongue movements are also fast, accurate and do not require much thinking, concentration or effort.”

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A motorised quasi robotic suit could soon be helping disabled people to sit down, stand up, walk about, and even climb stairs.

ReWalk, developed at by Israel-based Argo Medical Technologies, provides user-initiated mobility - using advanced motion sensors, sophisticated robotic control algorithms, on-board computers, real-time software, actuation motors, tailored rechargeable batteries and composite materials.

Users walk with the assistance of crutches, controlling suit movement through subtle changes in centre of gravity and upper-body movements. In addition to simplifying suit control, this user participation in mobility brings tangible health benefits.

Problems with the urinary, respiratory, cardiovascular and digestive systems, as well as osteoporosis, pressure sores are all common side affects of prolonged wheelchair use. By keeping users upright on a daily basis, and exercising even paralysed limbs, ReWalk alleviates many of the health-related problems associated with long-term wheelchair use.

To help scientists collect the more detailed data they need in order to find out why the world’s ice shelves are melting, without risking scientists’ safety, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in conjunction with Pennsylvania State University, have created specially designed robots called SnoMotes to traverse these potentially dangerous ice environments.

The SnoMotes work as a team, autonomously collaborating among themselves to cover all the necessary ground to gather assigned scientific measurements. Data gathered by the Snomotes could give scientists a better understanding of the important dynamics that influence the stability of ice sheets.

Ayanna Howard, lead on the project and an associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech, explained: “In order to say with certainty how climate change affects the world’s ice, scientists need accurate data points to validate their climate models. Our goal was to create rovers that could gather more accurate data to help scientists create better climate models. It’s definitely science-driven robotics.”

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Buses could be used as mobile sensing platforms, sending out live information that can be used to control traffic and detect road hazards, according to European researchers.

In a test, researchers with the Moryne project equipped city buses with environmental sensors and cameras, allowing the vehicles to become transmitters of measurements, warnings and live or recorded videos to anyone allowed to access the data.

The researchers developed a range of technologies for mobile sensing, data acquisition, analyses and telecommunications that could be placed in public buses as a part of a larger effort to improve road safety and traffic management.

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A grasshopper-inspired jumping robot weighing 7g which has the ability to jump 1.4m, or 27 times its body size, has been unveiled at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics in California.

Small jumping animals such as fleas, locusts, grasshoppers and frogs use elastic storage mechanisms to slowly charge and quickly release their jumping energy. In this way, they can achieve very powerful jumps and very high accelerations. As seen in the video, this jumping robot uses the exact same principle, charging two torsion springs via a small 0.6-gram pager motor and a cam. In order to be able to optimise the jumping performance, the legs can be adjusted for jumping force, take-off angle and force profile during the acceleration phase.  The tiny battery on board allows it to make up to 320 jumps at intervals of 3 seconds.

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The discovery that a person’s ‘pulse wave velocity’ is closely linked to blood pressure has lead to the development of a unique way of measuring this.

Instead of the traditional cuff, pump, stepthoscope or electronics commonly associated with taking a person’s blood pressure, consumer electronics company Philips has discovered that sensors sewn into the wasitband of a person’s underpants can measure the rate of this wave, the rate at which the pulse pressure wave passes through the blood circulatory system.

Each sensor continually measures the electrical impedance of the tissue beneath it. This property continuously changes as the pulse wave passes by, and so a pair of sensors is used to calculate the speed of the pulse wave by timing how long it takes to travel from one sensor to the other.

Once calibrated with a more conventional blood-pressure reading, the electrodes can provide accurate blood-pressure readings.

Chemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, have developed complex molecules containing zinc for use in portable sensors that quickly and reliably detect the presence of plastic explosives.

Sensors containing the zinc complexes are the first devices that allow the user to identify which type of explosive is present, since each metal complex has a unique response to explosives and explosive mimics.

Commenting, Michael Knapp, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University, said: “This is a big improvement over existing sensors based on polymers, since the metal complexes can discriminate between closely related explosives compounds.

“This ability is a real advantage for airport security personnel and law enforcement officials, who need to quickly detect and identify what type of explosives they are dealing with.”

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A tiny sensor that can read the data from nano-scale magnetic circuits is being developed by researchers from Sheffield and Leeds Universities.

The researchers believe that in some cases, magnetic nanotechnology devices could offer higher device density, lower power consumption, improved reliability or additional functionality, compared with more traditional silicone-based devices.

The project aims to develop a network of magnetic nanowires that can process information. The magnetic polarisation of various regions, or domains of the wire would represent the binary numbers of digital information. While this is not new, the challenge facing the team is to develop a device that can read out the magnetic data in a form compatible with modern electronics.

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Raytheon is developing a robotic suit for the solider of tomorrow at its research facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Known as an ‘Exoskeleton,’ the suit is essentially a wearable robot that amplifies its wearer’s strength, endurance, and agility. Made of a combination of sensors, actuators and controllers, the suit enables a test engineer to carry a man on his back, or lift 200 pounds several hundred times without tiring. Yet, it is agile enough to play soccer and climb stairs and ramps without issue.

Development of the Exoskeleton has been underway since 2000.

Read more at Raytheon