A project made by a Mechanical Engineering senior design team during the 2020-2021 school year recently won first place in the undergraduate division of the Student Mechanism & Robot Design Competition, which is part of the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences.

The team created an exoskeleton for lifting and carrying heavy objects, capable of supporting 40 pounds in each hand, with the operator able to control the exoskeleton with just a few fingers.  It uses one pneumatic actuator in each leg and two in each arm, making it much simpler and lower cost than alternative designs.

The team included Hunter Andrieu, Nabra Asgedom, Sarah Bresnahan, Sanghyeon Chang, Bonham Ekleberry, Sara Elnahhas, Nathan Folta, Adam Hinson, John Kuempel, Brita Lyons, Jakob Lyons, Austin Petty, Ben Wardach, and Zhao Yu, and was advised by Alan Asbeck.

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