5 Bionic Exoskeleton Suits of the Future
Tue, May 6, 2008
NEXT: The Most Advanced Exoskeleton in the World
4. Hal 5
Images Via Tactical War Fighter
HAL, short for Hybrid Assistive Limb, is not a war machine. In fact, it is designed to assist people who have difficulty walking or lifting heavy objects.
Hal5 is the latest in a series of robots designed by Dr. Sankai a professor at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. The structure of the exoskeleton is composed of nickel and aluminum alloys, as well as a thick plastic casing. Inside a small pouch on the belt buckle is a Linux-based control computer, a Wi-Fi communications system and a set of batteries that power the exoskeleton for over 2 hours.
Like Berkeley’s exoskeleton, Hal5 mimics the every move of its user: its weight is unnoticeable as it supports itself and you can easily leg-press 400 pounds. Nice…
What perhaps is most interesting, is the fact that you could see this prototype in action in a street near you.
As a report from spectrum confirmed:
Japan, with almost half the world’s nearly 1 million industrial robots, is likely to be the place where adoption of exoskeletons will first take hold. The country’s rapidly aging population—one in four Japanese will be 65 or older by 2015—and its ambivalence toward admitting foreign laborers have created a shortage of caregivers, and some believe robotic-aided nursing care could be the solution.
Watch a video below of HAL in action:
NEXT: The Most Advanced Exoskeleton in the World
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May 6th, 2008 at 11:25 am
It’s always really interesting to see how a pop culture reference can bring such sharp attention to these kinds of gems that have long since been hidden away in the dark recesses of research labs. Granted, work would surely have continued to progress on these sorts of projects without the release of “Iron Man,” but just look at how much new (or renewed) public interest there is in exoskeleteon development as a result of that movie.
I know that these researchers have languished in obscurity for years, working on stuff that we’re only now getting tantalizing glimpses of, but still, the timing makes it feel like a “wag the dog” kinda setup.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I agree with you and have thought that for years. The government along with the producers in hollywood have been doing this to the public to desensitize them.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Great roundup of the various exo skeletons around… the story has also been added at http://www.gearcult.com
May 6th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
The possibilities are intriguing.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Hey, check it out.. He can walk! Got any footage of him doing 300Lb squats?
May 6th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
excellent list of exo suits. for some reason i have zero confidence in the grizzly guy’s suit, although it looks amazing. The 4th one REX looks pretty impressive, I hope to see these things advance even more than this quickly. It seems that any progress is few and far between. Which is too bad.
http://www.zombierobotfrosting.blogspot.com
May 6th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hkCcoenLW4
May 6th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Hmmmm its not a bad idea, but if the best two or three were to get together and have a suit that could lift itself, be bullet resistant and fire pink splodgy paint balls, now that I would pay to see!
May 6th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
so i dont get it… this will allow fat people to move?
May 7th, 2008 at 3:00 am
Just what we need another fat-ass american who cant get around using his two legs.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
So, I guess they’ve got past the problems where the earlier bionic suits snapped their operators bones then?
May 8th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I for one welcome SkyNet as my new lord and master
May 11th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
all mechanical devices break down, have problems etc… you have to keep them up and if one breaks down on the battlefield you have to take it off and you cant carry the darn heavy thing to keep the enemy from getting it and reverse engineering it so what do you do? carry around enough c4 to destroy it before you leave…its utterly crazy to think something like this is practical… what do you do?….every army will have them eventually and you have to invent something else and so on just like everything else in war there will be no end to it and cost the taxpayers even more money.
its just stupid.
September 18th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Wow. No wonder that 10 years later iron man would become a reality.