Iranian Researchers Produce “Exoskeleton” to Improve Running Efficiency by 8%

Rezvan Nasiri, a graduate student at the Cognitive Systems Laboratory at the University of Tehran told Iranian media in an interview that the design and construction of exoskeletons capable of reducing energy consumption and tiredness while running was considered as a research challenge among the world's researchers for quite long time.

“Since 2005, one of the important research challenges has been reducing human energy consumption in daily activities such as walking, running, lifting heavy objects, etc. By solving such problems along with a better understanding of the biomechanics of the human body, researchers will be able to design device to help people who have difficulties while walking or running including disabled people and the elderly,” he added.

“By 2015, researchers managed to design exoskeletons that could perform almost all human daily activities with less fatigue and energy consumption, except for running. Therefore, designing and providing an exoskeleton which would be capable of reducing energy consumption and fatigue during running was raised as a research challenge among researchers in the world,” Nasiri added.

“Therefore, I tried to solve this research challenge in the form of a PhD thesis in collaboration with engineer Arjang Ahmadi,” the UT researcher said.

“According to the studies conducted on the biomechanics of the human body, during running, a part of the energy of each leg is lost when one leg hits the ground, and this is while the other leg must push off from the ground. this is a cycle. Running is a wasteful motion,” he said.

“Exoskeleton was designed to receive part of the energy in one leg (when it hits the ground) with the help of a spring and transfer it to the other leg. Through this cycle, energy loss can be improved,” the researcher went on to say. 

Saying that the exoskeleton improves running efficiency by at least 8%, the researcher said the findings of their research were published in an article entitled "Reducing the energy cost of human running using an unpowered exoskeleton" in the highly prestigious IEEE journal.

He went on to note that the New York Times published a report in its Sports Section entitled “A Device That Makes Running Faster and Easier,” which is available online on American newspaper website.

The UT researcher also said that their invention has been registered in the US Patent and Trademark Office as “methods and systems for an exoskeleton to reduce a runner’s metabolic rate".

Nasiri further noted that the device also won the innovation award of Khwarizmi Youth Award (KYA) festival in 2019, in addition to being awarded the best PhD dissertation in the UT in 2018. He added that their invention also obtained a patent in Iran in 2019.

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