Climbing Stairs Just Got Easier with Energy-Recycling Steps

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Climbing Stairs Just Got Easier with Energy-Recycling Steps


Device is easier on knees and ankles than conventional stairs




By
Jason Maderer | July 12, 2017
• Atlanta, GA








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A demonstration of the steps, which can be placed on existing staircases.

Researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University have created a device that makes walking up and down stairs easier. They’ve built energy-recycling stairs that store a user’s energy during descent and return energy to the user during ascent.

The spring-loaded stairs compress when someone comes down the stairs, saving energy otherwise dissipated through impact and braking forces at the ankle by 26 percent. When going up, the stairs give people a boost by releasing the stored energy, making it 37 percent easier on the knee than using conventional stairs. The low-power device can be placed on existing staircases and doesn’t have to be permanently installed.

Each stair is tethered by springs and equipped with pressure sensors. When a person walks downstairs, each step slowly sinks until it locks into place and is level with the next step, storing energy generated by the user. It stays that way until someone walks upstairs. When a person ascending the stairs steps on the sensor on the next tread up, the latch on the lower step releases. The stored energy in the spring is also released, lifting up the back leg.

The paper is currently published in the journal Public Library of Science PLOS ONE. The authors say the initial idea was to use energy-recycling prosthetic shoes to help people going up stairs.

“Unlike normal walking where each heel-strike dissipates energy that can be potentially restored, stair ascent is actually very energy efficient; most energy you put in goes into potential energy to lift you up,” said Karen Liu, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive ...

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