Realistic or Futuristic: serious injuries and assistive technology in the Marvel Comic Universe (MCU) films (Part 1)
Written by Rosti Readioff and Alice Faux-Nightingale.
Following on from Ed’s post about prosthetics in the Marvel universe and with the recent release of Endgame, we thought we would take a look at some of the Marvel characters who use hi-tech assistive devices to overcome serious injuries. With the films being set in a different universe to our own, the technologies given to the characters are built using the materials and technology of the world they are set in. But how realistic are these technologies? Are they similar to what people in the real world could access, or are they a fantasy that we cannot achieve with current technology? We have taken a look at three of the MCU characters to see what we think and here we present the first in the series.
War Machine — Colonel James Rhodes “Rhodey”
Spinal Injury
Colonel James Rupert “Rhodey” Rhodes is one of the members of the Avengers. He is an officer in the US air force, a mediator between the military and Stark Industries, and one of the Avenger’s teams. In the earlier films, he wears a powered armour suit, similar to the one that Iron Man uses, which gives him superhuman strength, a range of weapons, and the ability to fly.
In the film Civil War, Rhodey is accidentally shot out of the sky by Vision and although the suit saves his life, he is unable to walk following the accident. His mobility is restored with specially designed leg braces from Tony Stark and, combined with the armoured suit, Rhodey is able to continue his role as an Avenger in the later films.
The closest comparative wearable technologies to Rhodey’s powered armour suit are exoskeleton robotic devices. Generally, exoskeleton devices provide powered movement which means body motions are produced by the wearable device with no effort required from the user.
Currently, there are no full-body exoskeletons available for disabled individuals. Instead, exoskeleton devices exist to either control the upper or the lower limbs. For example, ReWalk which is a wearable robotic exoskeleton, the first exoskeleton to be approved by the FDA, provides hip and knee motion to enable disabled individuals to stand upright, walk, turn, climb and descend stairs. This device controls movement using subtle changes in the user’s center of gravity, such that a forward tilt of the upper body is sensed by the system, which initiates the first step. Repeated body shifting generates a sequence of steps which mimics a functional natural gait of the legs.
One of the main limitations of this technology is its high cost to acquire. In addition, this technology is intended for use by individuals with lower limb disabilities whose hands and shoulders can support crutches or a walker. It is suitable for individuals with height between 160cm — 190cm and weight up to 100kg. Other factors such as bone density and range of motion could limit the pool of users for whom this would be suitable.
There are other similar wearable exoskeletons, including PhoeniX developed by Suitx, HAL Lower Limb by Cyberdyne, ATLANTE by Wandercraft and many others.
One of the commonly used wearable robotic devices for the upper limb is MyoPro by Myomo Inc. This device is a robotic orthosis which is triggered by muscle activity (Electromyography, or EMG) to assist in bending and straightening the elbow and opening and closing the fingers. This device works by detecting the user’s own EMG signals, magnifying them and using them to drive the robot to move the elbow and hand. Like other exoskeleton robots, MyoPro initiates and controls the movement of the arm without any help from the user’s own arm muscles, hence creating passive motion. However, active motion (driven by the user’s own muscle force) is more favourable because it builds muscle tone and strengthens, and there is less of a chance of over-stretching.
One solution to recreate active motion while using an assistive device is by contracting the muscles. This contraction can be achieved by electrically stimulating the limb muscles. There are invasive (surgical) and non-invasive (non-surgical) procedures out there for electrically stimulating muscles to create functional movements in the body. However, in this blog, we are not going to talk about them because that is a whole new topic on its own.
Unfortunately, unlike Rhodey’s suit, none of these exoskeletons provide disabled individuals with a combined system to assist function in both the lower and upper limbs at the same time. Having a suit with this dual functionality could be ideal for individuals who have experienced a high-level injury to the spinal cord leading to paralysis of both lower and upper limbs (tetraplegia). That being said, recently Sarcos have introduced the concept of a full-body battery powered exoskeleton, named Guardian XO, for use in the construction industry. However, Guardian XO is not intended for use by disabled individuals and it certainly cannot fly!
One way to add flying functionality similar to Rhodey’s suit is by integrating the assistive technologies we discussed above with a jet-powered suit similar to the one founded by Richard Browning at Gravity Industries. Gravity’s jet suit consists of multiple gas turbine engines which levitate the wearer and the suit. The suit is controlled by body movements which would not be suitable for paralysed individuals who have limited body functions. Although there are plans in the pipeline for further development of this suit, currently there are no initiatives to integrate this suit with a full body exoskeleton for a disabled individual.
In conclusion, some of the technologies for Rhodey’s suit exist in isolation, so maybe the idea of a full body exoskeleton with flying functionality for a paralysed individual might not be as impossible as one might think!
If you have enjoyed reading this blog, then why don’t you visit Part 2 and Part 3 of this series? In the meantime, if you would like us to write about different assistive technologies related to human movements, then please feel free to comment below or get in touch.
