These are like two tall canes with forearm-supporting handles that come all the way down to elbow level, meant for walking on steep terrain, over streams etc. the elbow supports would make it unnecessary to waste any energy hanging onto the canes as they would be strapped to your forearms. And you could put your weight either on your elbows or adaptively on your shoulders. It would be sort of like walking in a trench and pushing yourself along using both hands on the lips of the trench. Praying Mantis Leg Arms.
-- JesusHChrist, May 12 2015

Yay, and in a pinch you could pray too! Nice visual JHC.+
-- blissmiss, May 13 2015


+ It's good, and love the title, too.
-- xandram, May 13 2015


This is much less good an idea than I thought it would be.

What I want are proper praying mantis arms. I'm imagining a carbon-fibre arm, about as long as my real forearm, fixed to a hinge that's attached to a glove that goes on my real hand. The new arm is normally folded back to lie alongside my real forearm.

A wire-and-pulley system is such that, when I extend my real forearm, the carbon-fibre extension arm whips out, praying-mantishly.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 13 2015


Proper praying mantis arms would involve bone grafts, not cf add-ons.
-- pocmloc, May 13 2015


Now, [pocmloc], no need to bite his head off.
-- normzone, May 13 2015



random, halfbakery