Researchers at the US Army Research Lab are testing a carbon-fiber exoskeleton arm originally developed to assist in the rehabilitation of stroke victims as a way to help stabilize firearms and allow soldiers to aim them more accurately. The Mobile Arm eXoskeleton for Firearm Aim Stabilization (MAXFAS) project has thus far only been used in static testing with external hardware, but experiments have shown that it can help improve the aim of soldiers with handguns even after they've stopped wearing it.
Dan Baechle, lead investigator on MAXFAS at ARL, described the system as being the equivalent of image stabilization—except that it actually stabilizes the entire arm of its wearer. “Imagine the benefits of using an image stabilizer for a camera when the photographer is capturing action shots," Baechle told the Defense Department's Armed With Science weblog. "MAXFAS provides that level of stability for your entire arm during the critical moments of aiming and shooting. The MAXFAS exoskeleton senses the tremors in your arm that you probably don’t even realize exist. The control algorithms for the device dramatically reduce the shake without locking your arm in place."
Aided by computers processing the sensor data from the carbon-composite arm exoskeleton, MAXFAS applies small amounts of force to counteract the shaking of a shooter's arm. As a result, the shooter is able to more easily stay on target. Baechle said that as far as he and ARL have been able to determine, an exoskeleton has never been used to improve the accuracy of firearms. "Typically, exoskeletons are devices designed for strength or endurance enhancement.”
Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments
No comments:
Post a Comment