Photograph courtesy of the Titan Team.
A team from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), Philadelphia, has won the 2013 James Dyson Award for its Titan Arm, exoskeleton arm that augments the wearer’s arm strength by 18kg (40 lb.) to help reduce fatigue. The device also has implications for use in the rehabilitation and physical therapy of shoulder and elbow injuries, assistive mobility, and assistive lifting, It is lightweight, battery-powered, and costs less than $2,000 to manufacture.
The team received the first prize award of $48,260 (£30,000) and an additional $16,100 (£10,000) will be given to Penn’s engineering department. The team competed against 650 international entries.
The James Dyson Award is an international student design award run by the James Dyson Foundation, a charitable trust set up to encourage the next generation of design engineers to “design something that solves a problem.”
“Titan Arm is obviously an ingenious design, but the team’s use of modern, rapid-and relatively inexpensive-manufacturing techniques makes the project even more compelling,” James Dyson said.
Editor’s note: To read more about the Titan Team’s work on the arm, visit “Penn Seniors Construct Exoskeleton Arm.”
