Scientists on Reddit

Hugh Herr

Bionics engineer at MIT and climber

u/Hugh_Herr ↗AMA only

How we know it's theirs

The 2016 r/science AMA, posted from this account

We retrieved 1 post and 19 comments from u/Hugh_Herr, all from 2016, most often in r/science.

Best moment

A redditor wrote in r/science

On “Science AMA Series: I'm Hugh Herr, professor and co-director of the Center for Extreme Bionics at the MIT Media Lab. At 17 I lost both my legs during a blizzard while rock climbing. Now I design bionic limbs that let us transcend disability and augment the human condition. AMA!”

I heard your story on the radio. How tall have made yourself with the fake legs? Is it hard to balance when the legs get extended that much?

u/Hugh_Herr replied

Years ago, when I was climbing actively, I on occasion made my height very very excessive. There was one occasion where I was 3m high! And yes indeed, it is very hard to balance (and a large distance to fall!).

More moments

A redditor wrote in r/science

How well do current bionics wear with time? In other words, how much maintenance and replacement do current technologies require, and how do you see this changing in the future? Also, about how long would you estimate it will take for hand-replacing bionics to roughly match…

u/Hugh_Herr replied

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The performance of biological systems is of course phenomenal, one characteristic of animals is extraordinary robustness or durability. Sometimes we go 80 years or more without maintenance or repair. Engineered machines go a very short time before needing repair – for example the bionic limbs that I invented and am wearing right now (BiOMs) are designed to work and be functional for only 5 years. To get a machine to emulate a biological body part and to go for more than 5 years is an extremely hard technological challenge. To truly emulate biological function, biological durability would require that the machine repairs itself. Before we have this, our machines will be very limited in their capacity.

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