If the Muscle Machine ever became mainstream and someone has an arachnophobia, I can just see the anxiety that these could bring. For some, just seeing a small spider scurrying across the floor is enough to send shivers up their spine, how about a metallic gadget with 6 legs, large enough for a human to fit in the center?

They always say that reality mirrors art and often, it is the imagination in movies that generate some of the advances in science. When I see the above image, I can’t help but think of Doctor Octopus in Spiderman after he had fused with metallic arms in an effort to control vast quantities of energy.

Mind you, that is science fiction, and we’re just taking baby steps here, but the Muscle Machine is an example of a hybrid human-machine system powered by fluidic muscle actuators. For it’s size, the machine is quite flexible and has a wide range of fluid motion due to the fact that the rubber muscles contract when inflated and extend when exhausted.

Encoders are present throughout the hip region of the skeleton which allow the person to actively control the machine. When the human controller raises one leg, the machine lifts three alternate legs and moves them forward. By turning it’s torso, the body causes the machine to move forward.

We’re probably years away from these becoming practical and there’s probably some miniaturization that needs to occur, but these would certainly have some practical uses, perhaps not at the consumer level just yet, but for certain industries, certainly.

Product Page: Stelarc Muscle Machine via Gizmo Watch