Researchers from Keio University in Japan have created a robotic tail for humans that's designed to assist in balance maintenance.

Dubbed "Arque," the tail was modeled, in part, after the tail of a seahorse and has tons of possible applications.

Future applications for this kind of technology could include preventing fall injuries and enhancing AR video game experiences.

If you've ever wondered what it feels like to have a tail—haven't we all?—Japanese researchers have some good news for you: Arque, a wearable robotic tail that aids in equilibrium management and provides haptic feedback to the wearer, is a thing that now exists.

Researchers from the Keio University Graduate School of Media Design call the mechanical marvel an "artificial bio-mimicry inspired anthropomorphic tail." See it for yourself:

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Arque was built to offset imbalances produced by movement. You can adjust the tail's length by adding or removing "vertebrae," and adjust the weight by adding or removing small weights that fit in the slots within each vertebrae, as shown in the video above.



An Arque vertebrae with four added metal weights. Junichi Nabeshima / Kouta Minamizawa / MHD Yamen Saraiji

The tail features four "muscles" that move in response to your actions. It has the ability to create force and uses feedback from those muscles to move in one of eight different directions.

Junichi Nabeshima / Kouta Minamizawa / MHD Yamen Saraiji

Though Arque's design takes cues from several members of the animal kingdom, like monkeys, the structure most mimics the anatomy of a seahorse's tail, because it can bear and offset the brunt of the weight that the body—whether it's a human's or seahorse's—is constantly moving around.

In order to provide enough energy to move Arque's muscles, researchers used a pneumatic actuator powered by an air compressor. This setup allows each muscle on the Arque to manage 0.8 kilopascals (kPa), or approximately 0.12 psi.

Besides maintaining balance, the team behind Arque says the tail can also be used to "change the center of mass of the user to off-balance [their] posture." Arque is not prehensile, meaning it doesn't have the ability to grip or latch onto objects the way seahorses do.

Right now, the robotic tail can help in equilibrium maintenance, may prevent fall injuries, and could enhance the augmented reality experience of video games. But because the system isn't wireless, you have to deal with limited mobility and range of motion.

Interesting Engineering reports that Arque's creators have plans for a "freestanding ... free fitting tail in the future." It will probably be just as weird—but potentially even more useful.

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