Cool — powered exoskeleton devices coming out of Japan.
Japanese companies are preparing for the commercial launch of a “robot suit” that helps aged or physically disabled people walk, get up the stairs or seat themselves to relax without a chair.
[…] The powered suit, code-named HAL-3 (Hybrid Assistive Leg), consists of a computer and batteries in the backpack as well as four actuators attached around the knees and hip joints.
The motor-powered devices guide movement of the legs as the computer calculates the user’s next motion by detecting faint electric signals from the muscle, the professor said.
[…] The weight of the system will be soon reduced from the current 17 kilogrammes (37 pounds) to some 10 kilogrammes, while the projecting part of the actuators will be halved to five centimetres (one and three quarter inches).
“We have also started developing a version for arms,” Sankai said. “Eventually, we aim to make a suit that is thin enough to be worn like underwear and will allow users to run and move their arms freely.”
Sweet.
(via Xkot)
Time to start planning that daring bank break-in. No super-heroes around, ya know!
Think they can give ’em tentacles? Say, four of ’em?
How about a speaker….so the HAL-3 can say “Good morning Dave” in that creepy 2001 Spacy Odessey kind of way. Or “What are you doing, Dave?”
There is a millitary logistics exoskeltion called BLEEX in development by Berkley (sp) labs.
Also I have designed various combat quadraped mechs that use exsisting technologies, just can’t get any funding to develop them further than the single combat prototype made from scrap parts (very hard to use and painful if it malfunctions[no eject])