Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength

A ROBOT suit has been developed that could help older people or those with disabilities to walk or lift heavy objects.

Dubbed HAL, or hybrid assistive limb, the latest versions of the suit will be unveiled this June at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan, which opened last month. A commercial product is slated for release by the end of the year.

HAL is the result of 10 years' work by Yoshiyuki Sankai of the University of Tsukuba in Japan, and integrates mechanics, electronics, bionics and robotics in a new field known as cybernics. The most fully developed prototype, HAL 3, is a motor-driven metal "exoskeleton" that you strap onto your legs to power-assist leg movements. A backpack holds a computer with a wireless network connection, and the batteries are on a belt."
www.newscientist.com...

I would hope these suites are available to police, military and firefighters first whom really need them.

This is really amazing stuff, the only draw back is the same as always which is battery life. If they could make them last for days instead of hours off of a single charge then they would become a part of everyday life, with nano battery tech this may be possible soon. I have read that Toshiba have produced a battery that can be fully charged in 2 mins and even after 1000 charges it still has 99% capacity.

www.newsfactor.com...

[edit on 11-4-2005 by ufo3]

Actually I was thinking about the butane powered fuel cells that are out.

That's pretty awesome!
But seriously, It will help people walk and help people with disabilities.
But will it in the near future actually give people super strength?
40 kilos more is only about 80 pounds and will it be able to respond to
agile and fast movements? I cant wait to see the future of these
Even if now the answer is no, it will only get better and better as science progresses.

Wow this is pretty kool, this is a medical version of what the us army wants for the 2020 refit project I guess, I really hope this field pans out it could have a lot of future uses both civilian and military, hey I may get a iron man suit if a few years if this works out, lol.

Exoskeletons are pritty cool indeed and have so much application area's.
From human forklifts to military/combat capable suits. This has been the futuristic view of Japan for ages, as displayed in a few 1000 different anime movies and series.

The same problem with this exists in all huge revolutions in technology these days.

"How to power the damn thing"

To think there are working models of ZPE generators and other cheap energy generators out there that are kept from the public, because cheap and free energy means no more multibillion dollar oil industry. The only thing oil would still be good for is to make plastics and stuff. And even those are posible to be made fully syntheticly these days.

yeah but I think the only real application for military will be a man size suit a mech or somthing along those sides are not vulnerable and not any significant advantages when you compare them to tanks or attack helicopters which would be the task that they woud be role they would try to be used in. Now a mansize suit similar to the ones used in the Starship troopers (CGI cartoons) would be significantly usefull for the infantry in terms or protection, sthrengh, load bearing, ect. But again the whole power problems is the biggest drawback to this.

Actually a remote power system could microwave energy to the thingy similar to what Tesla experimented with for "wireless" power. A small mobil "HARRP" system.

Hmm i may be wrong but i would think using microwaves to power the suite would be very difficult, if sats were used then u would always have to be in visual contact. The same goes for any microwave transmitter. The second thing would be that the user would need constant shielding or he/she would be cooked alive.
Have u got any good links to the butane cell u mentioned earlier? BTW u should also look up mobile hydrogen cells, they are still bulky now but in a few years they could maybe be very useful.

I want one!
APC MechWarrior EXTREEEM

Won't it be awesome, when all our troops are wearing these things... then the enemy (aliens? hehe... not much else could be an 'enemy' at that point) just zeros in on the weakest link.. the human. so wed be back to where we started, only able to lift a lot more


LOL.
Yeah... the oil companies, who own the alternative energy industries, are keeping ZPE (which at this point is very much impossible) devices on a shelf next to the 60mpg carburetors they had 40 years ago. Yup. We should just force them to unveil their free energy devices so we can watch the planet self destruct in economic collapse thanks to the interdependance of oil-based economies. Wheeeee.


Yeah that would be a bit of a problem
Strap dishes to their backs and just tell them to only stand next to eachother facing away from the transmitter... ehehehe.

BUMP!

Found a video on this, i noticed no video was posted, sorry for the bad quality, but you get to see it put through its paces, very cool.
With this suit, he is able to load a missile onto a plane!?

**Found better quality video here.

[edit on 3-5-2008 by Denied]