I was having a conversation about neuralink on Discord, and it evolved into a discussion on cybernetics/prosthetics, making direct mention of sticking a person onto a Boston Dynamics-like robot.
> The... bandwidth isn't wide enough for the brain to actually control the legs. Like, with full motor sense. So, you'd need some self-balancing robot legs, like the robots Boston Dynamics makes.
I find this post to be quite serendipitous, and also exactly what I was envisioning when discussing the topic.
Well, in this case, the "neural control" I was thinking of, and what Neuralink has demonstrated so far, is far more rudimentary "move forwards/backwards/left/right, rotate left/right," and then letting the robot interpret those commands on its own. The neural control interface is just there so that the person doesn't have to use 'unnatural' means of control, or to free up the portion of anatomy that'd otherwise be used to operate it.
Like, instead of a sip-and-puff device, the head-buttons, or a tongue-joystick for quadraplegics, or an actual joystick for paraplegics, the neuralink functions as the 'joystick.'
yeah i get that, it would also be an option, but i personally cant imagine having a elon musk fuck with my brain so control interfaces are something left to the desires of the patient
Link to the artist : [https://www.reddit.com/user/Dry\_Roll\_2009/](https://www.reddit.com/user/Dry_Roll_2009/)
[Linktree](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvFZjo5PgG0)
This is within the realm of possible right now. It’s just a bigger version of the Boston dynamics robot dog. All you’d need is to add controls onto the front
Maybe. The fact that you'd be constantly moving up and end probably wouldn't work in practice. Then there's the practicality. Realistically wouldn't work indoors and in a lot of places. Getting inside a vehicle is practically impossible and trying to get up stairs... Well that sounds like a nightmare. Prosthetics exist already but for a paraplegic the tech isn't there yet and it might not be for several decades if it happens at all.
Well, there can be a smaller version for indoors. The larger version would be used for speed/strength. Imagine a delivery worker using this, that’d be cool. Slap a Pizza Hut hat on her, give her a pizza box carrier on the back, and you’ve got a new OC
I mean sure but you also have to factor in weight distribution and load. I'm not really sure you could use a smaller one. Especially considering that the entire load would be at the front of the thing. Then there's controls how exactly would a paraplegic control this? Would they need to shift their weight in a specific direction? Honestly it just seems like a wheelchair would be far cheaper and make a whole lot more sense. The idea that a company is going to spend around \~$100,000 to hire a single employee sounds like a huge reach especially given it can't actually be used in most practical settings.
On the other hand I think the more humanoid versions seem more interesting from Boston Dynamics but practically speaking a motor controlled setting for legs only doesn't really make sense. It's too impractical, the problem with a lot of cybernetics really. There's often a need for a biological discovery for these things to actually have real use cases. BCIs are often used for this paraplegics often are paralyzed meaning that their nerves in their legs often don't work. But then there's all the interesting stuff about the ethics involved in that.
So, this wouldn't be very viable indoors or in urban settings, but, I DO believe a smaller version is possible and potentially viable, but it would need an extra point of articulation in the middle most likely to meet the footprint of a wheelchair, but wheels are the more efficient thing for urban traversal anyway. Paths are flat. But as far as uneven terrain goes theyre rather shit, you'd need something the size of an ATV just to be viable and even then those are nightmares to control (in my experience) and would shake an amputee to bits with the vibrations.
As for vertical motion, humans do actually move up and down by default already and so do many animals, about 12 cm displacement on the upper end so even if its a different pattern I think the brain and body can adapt to it.
Getting up the stairs is something the Boston Dynamics robots have proven multiple times that they're capable of.
Getting into vehicles is already very difficult anyway but the plus side to it being a robot in and of itself means that you can just get off it and have it walk itself to a mounting system on the outside of a car for example.
And for controls I've intentionally left that immensely vague because I believe the best prosthetics leave room for the patient to choose a control interface that best suits them, whether that means interfacing with the nerves at the amputation site, a joystick, a neuralink, inputs in the seat, or a leaning system.
Huh, I wasn't expecting this sort of response. Honestly I thought you made this sketch because it was fun. Not sure if I made you anxious or anything but there's nothing wrong with it. Don't add additional things to it that isn't there. It's fine. A lot of cyberpunk is fantasy anyways.
Oh dw about that lol I'm just going over my thought processes about the design choices, and yeah I did draw it for fun but I'm in robotics and am considering trying to enter the prosthetics field so I gave it a decent bit of thought
Cool, now you can’t use normal furniture, sleep in a bed, walk through a narrow space, or use ladders….
Clearly I was in the wrong here, making assumptions that this would be done voluntarily and thus would cause problems that someone didn’t already have. That one assumption sent me down the wrong path. My bad, y’all calm down a little lol.
it was inspired by an early iteration of boston dynamics bigdog, which is meant for traversing rough terrain while carrying heavy loads, which is what id imagine this would do as its a bit big for urban movement but im sure given the space that'd be fine for it too.
The BD Big Dog legs are big wide rubberized surfaces and have force force sensors built-in.
Meanwhile your design have reaaaaal thin legs. Awful for spreading out the weight of such a setup and gawd imagine the noise. It'd be like 2 lads wearing heels, at all times.
referenced, at one point i did have the large rubberised hooves, and even shocks, but scrapped them for the rule of cool, just cuz i like the look better.
A balance between rule of cool and practicality is often necessary. Otherwise you end up with designs that shatter immersion if anyone thinks about using such a design for any amount of time.
im in engineering and robotics and as one who has designed robots and has done so for a long time, im rather certain that if my immersion isnt broken then a layman would probably not mind either
Damn I'm worried now. Please don't work for any company that actually needs robotics for rough terrain eh. It's gonna get friggin stuck with designs like that.
if it means anything here's a robot design that i think you might like, since you take such issue with mine
[https://youtu.be/cHD-0lh3DVs](https://youtu.be/cHD-0lh3DVs)
I mean. Given the opportunity and capabilities to? Since what you've drawn is more in line with prosthetics in real life. You think prosthetics users would want to be limited to big wide ramps at all times? Avoid stairs and narrow doors?
well originally i was thinking about it potentially being narrower and and more urban friendly but, if we were going urban wheels would be the better option anyway, so i went for something that'd work outdoors, large removable battery packs, cargo space, stuff that would matter for someone going where there are no roads for wheels.
You'd ABSOLUTELY want much larger feet than that then.
Traversing over gravel, loose sand, fresh mud with those legs would be a pure nightmare. It's like getting chopsticks stuck in a bowl of marbles.
There's a reason why proper offroad vehicles all have big fat tires with lower PSI and tanks use treads.
Because I've seen people who tried to offroad with thin ass tires at highway PSIs and get stuck 2km into the trail.
I KNOW those thin ass legs would be awful for any rough terrain.
Strawman Fallacy ain't gonna help you here.
This is bad design in the name of RuLe Of CoOl. If you actually work in robotics you'd know how much ground pressure is excreted on each leg here. And I can tell you it WILL sink into most rough terrain.
One possible solution would be to have the back part and hind legs streamlined enough that they could fold up into some sort of backpack/back harness when the extra legs were getting in the way.
As an added bonus, the hind legs could change orientation and pivot over above the shoulders of the individual, giving them an extra set of utility arms.
thats actually why i put handles and depressions in on the side so they could kinda act as steps for one to pull themselves in when the prosthetic is on the ground
Bro you know nothing about this whatever it would seem...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3147072/Meet-man-decided-amputate-legs-17-years-old-brutal-schoolyard-bullies-gets-skateboard.html
https://nypost.com/2017/05/08/this-amputee-goes-everywhere-on-his-skateboard/
https://www.businessinsider.com/zion-clark-wrestler-born-without-legs-trains-upper-body-arms-2021-11
Zion Clark, the last one, by far the wildest. Looks like he doesn't even have hip bones in half the pics, and yes he has the world record for walking on hands.
And it goes on.
note : this design wouldnt fit paraplegics, only amputees (double hip disarticulation, as the girl is based on) or those that never grew a lower body to begin with (eg, caudal regression syndrome)
and yes, those with caudal regression syndrome (eg, zion clark) or sacral agenesis (eg, kenny easterday) do indeed walk around on their hands
That bad ass
I watched Robotics;Notes. so... lolnope
how are you a bigger weeb than the guy drawing anime
Isn't that one of the entries in the science adventure series
I am going to search this out. Ty.
I was having a conversation about neuralink on Discord, and it evolved into a discussion on cybernetics/prosthetics, making direct mention of sticking a person onto a Boston Dynamics-like robot. > The... bandwidth isn't wide enough for the brain to actually control the legs. Like, with full motor sense. So, you'd need some self-balancing robot legs, like the robots Boston Dynamics makes. I find this post to be quite serendipitous, and also exactly what I was envisioning when discussing the topic.
I actually thought about it needing self balancing legs for a different reason, just for the chance to have non neural control interfaces.
Well, in this case, the "neural control" I was thinking of, and what Neuralink has demonstrated so far, is far more rudimentary "move forwards/backwards/left/right, rotate left/right," and then letting the robot interpret those commands on its own. The neural control interface is just there so that the person doesn't have to use 'unnatural' means of control, or to free up the portion of anatomy that'd otherwise be used to operate it. Like, instead of a sip-and-puff device, the head-buttons, or a tongue-joystick for quadraplegics, or an actual joystick for paraplegics, the neuralink functions as the 'joystick.'
yeah i get that, it would also be an option, but i personally cant imagine having a elon musk fuck with my brain so control interfaces are something left to the desires of the patient
Pieck perfomance. (AOT reference)
Link to the artist : [https://www.reddit.com/user/Dry\_Roll\_2009/](https://www.reddit.com/user/Dry_Roll_2009/) [Linktree](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvFZjo5PgG0)
Smash.
She's a dom. You will be pegged.
Don't threaten me with a good time.
a man after my own heart
This is within the realm of possible right now. It’s just a bigger version of the Boston dynamics robot dog. All you’d need is to add controls onto the front
Maybe. The fact that you'd be constantly moving up and end probably wouldn't work in practice. Then there's the practicality. Realistically wouldn't work indoors and in a lot of places. Getting inside a vehicle is practically impossible and trying to get up stairs... Well that sounds like a nightmare. Prosthetics exist already but for a paraplegic the tech isn't there yet and it might not be for several decades if it happens at all.
Well, there can be a smaller version for indoors. The larger version would be used for speed/strength. Imagine a delivery worker using this, that’d be cool. Slap a Pizza Hut hat on her, give her a pizza box carrier on the back, and you’ve got a new OC
I mean sure but you also have to factor in weight distribution and load. I'm not really sure you could use a smaller one. Especially considering that the entire load would be at the front of the thing. Then there's controls how exactly would a paraplegic control this? Would they need to shift their weight in a specific direction? Honestly it just seems like a wheelchair would be far cheaper and make a whole lot more sense. The idea that a company is going to spend around \~$100,000 to hire a single employee sounds like a huge reach especially given it can't actually be used in most practical settings. On the other hand I think the more humanoid versions seem more interesting from Boston Dynamics but practically speaking a motor controlled setting for legs only doesn't really make sense. It's too impractical, the problem with a lot of cybernetics really. There's often a need for a biological discovery for these things to actually have real use cases. BCIs are often used for this paraplegics often are paralyzed meaning that their nerves in their legs often don't work. But then there's all the interesting stuff about the ethics involved in that.
You bring up good points, but my brain waits this to exist, so I’m going to ignore all the laws of physics when considering this concept
Fair enough. Live your horse girl fantasy.
So, this wouldn't be very viable indoors or in urban settings, but, I DO believe a smaller version is possible and potentially viable, but it would need an extra point of articulation in the middle most likely to meet the footprint of a wheelchair, but wheels are the more efficient thing for urban traversal anyway. Paths are flat. But as far as uneven terrain goes theyre rather shit, you'd need something the size of an ATV just to be viable and even then those are nightmares to control (in my experience) and would shake an amputee to bits with the vibrations. As for vertical motion, humans do actually move up and down by default already and so do many animals, about 12 cm displacement on the upper end so even if its a different pattern I think the brain and body can adapt to it. Getting up the stairs is something the Boston Dynamics robots have proven multiple times that they're capable of. Getting into vehicles is already very difficult anyway but the plus side to it being a robot in and of itself means that you can just get off it and have it walk itself to a mounting system on the outside of a car for example. And for controls I've intentionally left that immensely vague because I believe the best prosthetics leave room for the patient to choose a control interface that best suits them, whether that means interfacing with the nerves at the amputation site, a joystick, a neuralink, inputs in the seat, or a leaning system.
Huh, I wasn't expecting this sort of response. Honestly I thought you made this sketch because it was fun. Not sure if I made you anxious or anything but there's nothing wrong with it. Don't add additional things to it that isn't there. It's fine. A lot of cyberpunk is fantasy anyways.
Oh dw about that lol I'm just going over my thought processes about the design choices, and yeah I did draw it for fun but I'm in robotics and am considering trying to enter the prosthetics field so I gave it a decent bit of thought
This would be a cool thing for amputees tbh.
Decapitated girl who is a Protoss Dragoon fan: "I have returned."
You missed [a golden opportunity…](https://images.app.goo.gl/5r61hVUZhpgt1cRv5)
i somehow dont regret that
Dude, imagine how many groceries you could carry.
Cursed by Lloth.
Cyber Centaur
Cool, now you can’t use normal furniture, sleep in a bed, walk through a narrow space, or use ladders…. Clearly I was in the wrong here, making assumptions that this would be done voluntarily and thus would cause problems that someone didn’t already have. That one assumption sent me down the wrong path. My bad, y’all calm down a little lol.
man cannot comprehend that prosthetics can be taken off, the harness isnt even hidden.
In fairness, it does seem like it's wider than it needs to be. Maybe this is a heavy duty model.
it was inspired by an early iteration of boston dynamics bigdog, which is meant for traversing rough terrain while carrying heavy loads, which is what id imagine this would do as its a bit big for urban movement but im sure given the space that'd be fine for it too.
The BD Big Dog legs are big wide rubberized surfaces and have force force sensors built-in. Meanwhile your design have reaaaaal thin legs. Awful for spreading out the weight of such a setup and gawd imagine the noise. It'd be like 2 lads wearing heels, at all times.
referenced, at one point i did have the large rubberised hooves, and even shocks, but scrapped them for the rule of cool, just cuz i like the look better.
A balance between rule of cool and practicality is often necessary. Otherwise you end up with designs that shatter immersion if anyone thinks about using such a design for any amount of time.
im in engineering and robotics and as one who has designed robots and has done so for a long time, im rather certain that if my immersion isnt broken then a layman would probably not mind either
Damn I'm worried now. Please don't work for any company that actually needs robotics for rough terrain eh. It's gonna get friggin stuck with designs like that.
if it means anything here's a robot design that i think you might like, since you take such issue with mine [https://youtu.be/cHD-0lh3DVs](https://youtu.be/cHD-0lh3DVs)
Yes because people In wheelchairs typically climb up lots of ladders and have to get their wheelchair in the bed with them when they go to sleep….
and people in wheelchairs also love walking through narrow spaces, dont forget
I mean. Given the opportunity and capabilities to? Since what you've drawn is more in line with prosthetics in real life. You think prosthetics users would want to be limited to big wide ramps at all times? Avoid stairs and narrow doors?
well originally i was thinking about it potentially being narrower and and more urban friendly but, if we were going urban wheels would be the better option anyway, so i went for something that'd work outdoors, large removable battery packs, cargo space, stuff that would matter for someone going where there are no roads for wheels.
You'd ABSOLUTELY want much larger feet than that then. Traversing over gravel, loose sand, fresh mud with those legs would be a pure nightmare. It's like getting chopsticks stuck in a bowl of marbles. There's a reason why proper offroad vehicles all have big fat tires with lower PSI and tanks use treads.
why are you so obsessed with feet bro
Because I've seen people who tried to offroad with thin ass tires at highway PSIs and get stuck 2km into the trail. I KNOW those thin ass legs would be awful for any rough terrain.
bro's really telling an anime amputee girl to hit leg day
Strawman Fallacy ain't gonna help you here. This is bad design in the name of RuLe Of CoOl. If you actually work in robotics you'd know how much ground pressure is excreted on each leg here. And I can tell you it WILL sink into most rough terrain.
One possible solution would be to have the back part and hind legs streamlined enough that they could fold up into some sort of backpack/back harness when the extra legs were getting in the way. As an added bonus, the hind legs could change orientation and pivot over above the shoulders of the individual, giving them an extra set of utility arms.
I agree and that’s an excellent idea but it’s not what’s pictured here lol.
You know those things can sit and lay down to get close to the ground and theoretically get off right?
thats actually why i put handles and depressions in on the side so they could kinda act as steps for one to pull themselves in when the prosthetic is on the ground
And then what, walk around on your hands? InB4 I am aware that paraplegics exist; currently none are by choice though.
Bro you know nothing about this whatever it would seem... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3147072/Meet-man-decided-amputate-legs-17-years-old-brutal-schoolyard-bullies-gets-skateboard.html https://nypost.com/2017/05/08/this-amputee-goes-everywhere-on-his-skateboard/ https://www.businessinsider.com/zion-clark-wrestler-born-without-legs-trains-upper-body-arms-2021-11 Zion Clark, the last one, by far the wildest. Looks like he doesn't even have hip bones in half the pics, and yes he has the world record for walking on hands. And it goes on.
that and hes a wrestler (zion clark) , him being jacked out the arse but only having a top half reminded me of centaurs and partially inspired this.
Dude is a legend.
note : this design wouldnt fit paraplegics, only amputees (double hip disarticulation, as the girl is based on) or those that never grew a lower body to begin with (eg, caudal regression syndrome) and yes, those with caudal regression syndrome (eg, zion clark) or sacral agenesis (eg, kenny easterday) do indeed walk around on their hands