Noonee® is a new Start Up company coming out of research in robotics in Switzerland. Aimed at solving healthcare problems within the manufacturing industry, noonee adopts a Chairless Chair® approach. Within the manufacturing industry, keeping employees healthy has been a major concern and challenge for many companies around the world for a long time. Jobs often involve spending long periods of time bending and crouching and as a result can leave staff with substantial back and knee problems. Of 215 million industry sector workers in the EU, a staggering 85 million are reported to suffer from muscle related disorders. Market solutions that are currently available may also pose problems as they limit short term tiredness by taking all the weight of the user, which can lead to muscle weakening. What is needed is a product that can support staff working on production lines while keeping them healthy. Coming out of NCCR Robotics lab, the Bio-Inspired Robotics laboratory at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, noonee® is a revolutionary start-up business aiming to address this significant social issue that previous solutions have not dealt with successfully.
The idea is to provide an exoskeleton that supports the weight of the user only when they feel tired , rather than continuously taking on this weight – meaning that the wearer is using their muscles and actively, rather than passively, sitting. The “chair” is not a chair as we know it, but more of an exoskeleton for the legs with a belt to attach it to the hips and straps that wrap around the thighs. The slim structure has joints that allow the wearer to move freely, but when the wearer is in a position they wish to stay in for a long time (e.g. crouching under a car on a production line), this position can be fixed, meaning that the wearer does not need to use the same muscle groups for long periods of time to hold the position. The advantage of such a structure is that it can be worn anywhere and can also be used when standing and walking. This reduces the space required as compared to a traditional chair and reduces the hassle when compared to other solutions, such as chairs that are strapped to the user.
The Chairless Chair® is currently still in prototype and the current version requires the user to fix a position by crouching down into the required position and pushing a button. It is hoped that future iterations of the Chairless Chair® will be actuated to allow the system to become intelligent and understand the intention of the user, allowing it to be fixed into position without any additional input from the wearer. If you’re interested and want to be a part of prototype testing, check out their website and get in touch. Feel free to also ask questions in the comment section below. Robohub is an online platform that brings together leading communicators in robotics research, start-ups, business, and education from around the world. Learn more about us here. If you liked this article, you may also be interested in: See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Linda Seward, NCCR Roboticsnoonee's senior partners model the Chairless Chair
If you work somewhere such as a factory, warehouse, or restaurant kitchen, then you'll know how tiring it can be to stand for several hours at a time. Unfortunately, however, it isn't always practical or safe to carry a stool around with you wherever you go. That's why Swiss start-up noonee has created the Chairless Chair. pany CEO Keith Gunura started developing the Chairless Chair in 2009, when he was a student in the Bioinspired Robotics Lab at the ETH Zurich research institute. He was inspired to do so by memories of his first job, in which he worked while standing at a packaging line.Now in prototype form and being actively marketed, the device utilizes a powered variable damper to support the wearer's body weight. The user simply bends their knees to get themselves down to the level at which they'd like to sit, and then engages the damper. The Chairless Chair then locks into that configuration, directing their weight down to the heels of their shoes, to which it is attached – it also attaches to the thighs via straps, and to the waist using a belt.
Plans call for the commercial model to weigh 2 kg (4.4 lb), and to be able to operate for at least eight hours on one charge of its 9-volt battery. There's no word on an estimated price."At the moment we are getting a lot of interest and e-mails from all kinds of people who want to use the Chairless Chair in very different areas: factories, film industry (photographers and camera men), medical, agricultural (harvesting and gardening), hiking, and a lot others," noonee CFO Olga Motovilova told us. "Our focus at the moment is factory environments."More information is available in the following video.Whether success or failure, you need to move forward. The momentum is what is critical.Editor's Note: A commenter referred me to Darcy Bonner's wearable chair, which inspired a brief history of this typology via the USPTO.As anyone who has worked a job that requires long bouts of standing in one place knows, remaining upright for an extended amount of time takes a heavy toll on your legs and back, yet the best solution that we've come up with is the uninspired standing mat... until now.
Some are calling it an invisible chair, while others are going with bionic pants—a matter of semantics, perhaps, but considering that the chair is a canonical example of industrial design, it's worth examining where exactly Noonee's "Chairless Chair" fits in the grand scheme of things."Based on robotic principles of Bio-Inspired Legged Locomotion and Actuation," the exoskeletal assistive device consists of a pair of mechatronic struts that run the length of the user's leg, with attachment points across the thighs and at the heels of the user's shoes. Hinged at the knee to allow for normal movement—viz. walking and running—its core innovation is the battery-powered variable damper system that can be engaged to direct body weight from the legs to the heels of one's feet.Of course, the Chairless Chair is intended not for us deskbound office peons but for environments in which workers must stand in one place for long periods, if not entire 8-hour shifts. As the story goes, 29-year-old Keith Gunura was inspired by his experience working in a packaging factory in the U.K.;
now, a decade later, he is the CEO and founder of Zurich-based Noonee. CNN, which duly notes the precedent of the one-legged Swiss milking stool, sums up these workplace health concerns (as does the Noonee website):Noonee's flagship product is reportedly going into trials at the likes of BMW and Audi later this year, but the use cases of the 5lb device (each 'leg' weighing in at 1kg) go far beyond the production line. (Insofar as it is intended for a broad audience, the device doesn't fills a different niche than, say, Ekso Bionics' robotic exoskeleton.) More portable than any stool or chair, less obtrusive than a walker and more supportive than those folding seat-canes, the Chairless Chair represents a heretofore unexplored intersection of paramedical assistance, ergonomics and, yes, wearability.The point is that it's not so much an article of furniture but a seat—the seat of your pants, as it were—which is exactly what people are looking for when they want a chair. Thus, the misnomer is not only a good PR move but a subtle point about what design is: solving problems, as opposed to just making things.