Japan now has robot suits!

Ok I logged onto the net and I opened up yahoo, and low and behold the story that got me giggling like a school girl.

Greying Japan looks to robot suits for help

TOKYO (AFP) - As Japan greys, who will look after the elderly? Maybe one day their aging children -- in robot suits -- if technology under development comes out of the laboratory and into the home.

Among the array of futuristic products for the senior citizens or their caregivers on display at a trade fair this week in Tokyo was a power assist suit that makes it easier to lift an elderly person out of a wheelchair or bed.

Visit link for full story.
Yahoo.com

Ok yeah this sounds cool as hell, I remember watching Beyond Tomorrow on the science channel, a few years ago, and remember seeing something like this, now I tried to look up the information, but nothing. So I was like oh well. Now one of these days Japan will make these things better , heck maybe even water proof, that way they will take over the world with their Gundam like suits of armor. But who knows, I seriously want one of these suits.

Yes, I remember seeing an earlier version of this on an old TV show from Australia called 'Beyond 2000'.

I believe that this is the way of the future. Not just for the elderly, but for people with muscular wasting diseases, mild strokes, and people recovering from broken bones who've been confined to wheelchairs.

Which leads me to my next point - their eventual use in treating partial paraplegics, or at least getting parts of their body to move again. This will go a long ways to increasing their quality of life and, most importantly, reducing caregivers time.

The US DARPA has and is working on suits called exo skeletons. It is quite impressive what they have in the books. A nanotechnologist in texas has designed a synthetic material for the US military that has muscle like fibers that are 100 times stronger then the average man. These machines made by the japanese are lagging behind what the US is already working on IMO.

[edit on 7-10-2007 by West Coast]

To the OP, I do not mean to hi jack your thread. I just thought some of you would be interested in what the US is working on with their exoskeletons on thier' future soldier'. Its a whole lot smaller and compact, less bulky. REad the super human strength part.

Yip, that beats the stuff on Beyond 2000 by... umm, let me see, by at least 50 years.

Good call, am going to send it around to all my mates now and say 'Hey, look what I just found on the internet'.

Thanks for the glory.

Originally posted by Mr Gunter
Yip, that beats the stuff on Beyond 2000 by... umm, let me see, by at least 50 years.

Good call, am going to send it around to all my mates now and say 'Hey, look what I just found on the internet'.

Thanks for the glory.

Well the US military is hopeful to be fielding this future force warrior suit by the year 2020, so about 13 years away this tech could very well be a reality. And nothing speeds up the development of technology like war, as one US general put it, in regards to this suit. I cant help but think how expensive such a suit would be though, how many could they get without breaking the bank? Im sure they cost a pretty penny.

I also read somwhere that the game developers of HALO were asked by DARPA to come up with exo skeleton designs. That they were actually contracted out to do so.



[edit on 7-10-2007 by West Coast]

Now that would be a nifty thing to have! And it looks like they are already in semi-production phases.

For now the suit, developed by Kanagawa Institute of Technology, is only made to order and generally targeted at nursing homes and hospitals.

The funny thing is, the US uses this type of technology for warfare, Japan uses it for welfare. Odd, or not really.

-Warlo

I do know that the US is working on Exo Suits, but until they release a prototype of a working one to the public, it is nothing more then ideas and Top Secret stuff.

The only reason why I posted the suit that Japan has, is because they made it public, and actually showed a working prototype. I know that the US can't show us anything because its like Top Secret stuff.

Now you can actually show your friends, that we have working robot suits.

Originally posted by Warlo
Now that would be a nifty thing to have! And it looks like they are already in semi-production phases.

For now the suit, developed by Kanagawa Institute of Technology, is only made to order and generally targeted at nursing homes and hospitals.

The funny thing is, the US uses this type of technology for warfare, Japan uses it for welfare. Odd, or not really.

-Warlo

Yes, but the american one is much more impressive out of the two. that particular one is for the military. the US is a superpower. Japan is not. There are civilian sectors inside the US that are currently working on exo skeletons.

Originally posted by Harvestfreak
I do know that the US is working on Exo Suits, but until they release a prototype of a working one to the public, it is nothing more then ideas and Top Secret stuff.

The only reason why I posted the suit that Japan has, is because they made it public, and actually showed a working prototype. I know that the US can't show us anything because its like Top Secret stuff.

Now you can actually show your friends, that we have working robot suits.

Interetsing you should say that. The US has a working prototype exoskeleton, its known as bleex 1 and bleex 2, bleex 1 has already been tested, Bleex 2 is an upgraded version.



And I assure you, there is nothing secret about the Future force warrior. All the latest data on it is out there for your view.


Also, check this out.

www.physorg.com...

University of Texas at Dallas nanotechnologists have made alcohol- and hydrogen-powered artificial muscles that are 100 times stronger than natural muscles, able to do 100 times greater work per cycle and produce, at reduced strengths, larger contractions than natural muscles. Among other possibilities, these muscles could enable fuel-powered artificial limbs, "smart skins" and morphing structures for air and marine vehicles, autonomous robots having very long mission capabilities and smart sensors that detect and self-actuate to change the environment.

Pretty interesting stuff.




[edit on 7-10-2007 by West Coast]

I am sorry about that, but I don't ever recall it being related on a news site, like Yahoo, CNN, Fox, Google, etc. I would love to see it put to the test in an official new brief or something, at least Japan has plans to market it in the next year or two.

I think this suit your talking about is called the HAL (Hybrid-Assisted-Limb), this suit claims that you could carry up to 10 times your strength.

Its a real cool exo-suit, ive viewed these videos a while ago,






EDIT:
if this is not what your talking about...............sorry



[edit on 8-10-2007 by TeslaFan]