Exoskeleton to enhance safety, retention for aerial porters, others
Published Oct. 16, 2022
By Gina Marie Giardina
Air Force Research Laboratory Public Affairs
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS) --
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Center for Rapid Innovation, or CRI, held an event Oct. 6 with the Air Force Reserve Command’s 445th Airlift Wing for a ROAM Robotics team to demonstrate the latest Forge System, a pneumatically-powered exoskeleton that augments leg strength to reduce fatigue, increase endurance and offset weight.
The event began with a presentation of the pneumatically-powered exoskeleton system, which is supported by Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research project called Radical Improvements in Personnel Performance through Enhanced Development, or RIPPED.
Two aerial porters from the 87th Aerial Port Squadron waited in the back of a C-17 Globemaster III to demonstrate the technology. Aerial porters are responsible for the management and movement of passengers and cargo transported through airlift. The cargo that aerial porter teams load and unload can range from large pallets of equipment, gear and food.
Chief Master Sgt. Sean Storms, 87th APS aerial port manager, and Senior Master Sgt. Brian Anders, 87th APS assistant aerial port manager, donned the technology, which consisted of actuated leg braces and a backpack, and moved a pallet that weighed about 3,500 pounds. The two porters equipped with the Forge System moved the pallet on their own, a weight typically moved by four or five people.
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3189412/exoskeleton-to-enhance-safety-retention-for-aerial-porters-others/
