News tagged with exoskeleton

A crowning success for crayfish

Nature sometimes copies its own particularly successful developments. A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and the Ben-Gurion University at Beer-Sheva in ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 21, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

ExoHand: Glove for hand power is showcased at Hanover fair (w/ video)

(Phys.org) -- ExoHand, a glove designed to double the gripping power of the human hand, was a key attraction at this week's Hanover Trade Fair. So much for mechanical graspers or mechanical claws: one viewer ...

Technology / Engineering

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (10) | comments 10 | with audio podcast report

Evolution in reverse: insects recover lost 'wings'

The extravagant headgear of small bugs called treehoppers are in fact wing-like appendages that grew back 200 million years after evolution had supposedly cast them aside, according to a study published Thursday ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 05, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 15

Silk moth's antenna inspires new nanotech tool with applications in Alzheimer's research

By mimicking the structure of the silk moth's antenna, University of Michigan researchers led the development of a better nanopore---a tiny tunnel-shaped tool that could advance understanding of a class of ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Feb 28, 2011 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Low oxygen triggers moth molt

A new explanation for one of nature's most mysterious processes, the transformation of caterpillars into moths or butterflies, might best be described as breathless.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cyborg-walkers stride toward Japan's robotics future

Three Japanese cyborg look-alikes turned heads on busy Tokyo streets and subway trains Monday as they made their way to a robotics conference on a hot summer's day -- without breaking a sweat.

Electronics / Robotics

created Aug 03, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (26) | comments 11

Paraplegics have been given new hope for walking (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Berkeley Bionics unveiled eLEGS exoskeleton at a press conference on October 7 in San Francisco. Berkeley Bionics' CEO, Eythor Bender stated that their mission is to provide people with unprecedented ...

Technology / Engineering

created Oct 14, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (30) | comments 6 | with audio podcast weblog

Running robot: MABEL is now the world's fastest two-legged robot with knees (w/ video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- A robot in a University of Michigan lab can run like a human -- a feat that represents the height of agility and efficiency for a two-legged machine. With a peak pace of 6.8 miles per hour, ...

Electronics / Robotics

created Aug 16, 2011 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (10) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Breakthrough: Scientists harness the power of electricity in the brain (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- A paralyzed patient may someday be able to "think" a foot into flexing or a leg into moving, using technology that harnesses the power of electricity in the brain, and scientists at University of Michigan ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 02, 2010 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (9) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

From protein to planes and pigskin

Scientists may soon be able to make pest insects buzz off for good or even turn them into models for new technologies, all thanks to a tiny finding with enormous potential.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

The secret life of millipedes

Male adult helminthomorph millipedes usually have one or two pairs of legs from their seventh segment modified into sexual appendages. These specialized gonopods are used as claspers to hold the female during ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 21, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

The real 'Iron Man' exoskeleton does the work of two to three soldiers (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new version of what some refer to as the "Iron Man" suit was unveiled Monday by Raytheon at the company's research facility in Salt Lake City.

Technology / Engineering

created Sep 29, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (26) | comments 25 | with audio podcast weblog

Japanese robo-suit promises superpowers for greying farmers

While Robocop and Iron Man can dodge bullets and crush villains, a new powered suit from Japan promises its elderly users more modest powers, such as pulling up radishes without getting a backache.

Electronics / Robotics

created Apr 09, 2010 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (15) | comments 9

Disabled Japanese tourist plans robo-suit adventure

A disabled Japanese adventurer says he is planning to leave his wheelchair behind and walk up a medieval French World Heritage site next year with the help of a cutting-edge robotic suit.

Electronics / Robotics

created Sep 16, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (11) | comments 7

Physicists discover how the outer shell of a hornet can harvest solar power

As every middle-school child knows, in the process of photosynthesis, plants take the sun's energy and convert it to electrical energy. Now a Tel Aviv University team has demonstrated how a member of the animal ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 05, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (28) | comments 44 | with audio podcast

Exoskeleton

An exoskeleton is the external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal skeleton (endoskeleton) of, for example, a human. In popular usage, some of the larger kinds of exoskeletons are known as "shells". Examples of exoskeleton animals include insects such as grasshoppers and cockroaches, and crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters. The shells of the various groups of shelled mollusks, including those of snails, clams, tusk shells, chitons and nautilus, are also exoskeletons.

Mineralized exoskeletons first appeared in the fossil record about 550 million years ago, and their evolution is considered by some to have played a role in the subsequent Cambrian explosion of animals.[citation needed]

Some animals, such as the tortoise, have both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton.

For more information about Exoskeleton, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.