From: cryofan (cryofan@mylinuxisp.com)
Date: Fri Aug 22 2003 - 10:22:41 MDT
It is a powered exoskeleton, supposedly marketed to the elderly. Coming soon
according to this article:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030821/tc_afp/japan_robot_technology_030821084042
Excerpts and my comments below:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
TOKYO (AFP) - 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.
Trading house Mitsui and Co. and some 30 other Tokyo firms plan to set up a
joint-venture in April or May next year to market the powered suit developed
by Yoshiyuki Sankai, professor and engineer at Tsukuba University, officials
said Thursday.
.............
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.
>>>>>>>>>>>
But I wonder how much of this was funded by US medical research?
>>>>>>>>>
With the equipment, the user can walk at a speed of four kilometres (2.5
miles) per hour with little physical exertion and avoid the jerky stop-go
moves of ordinary robots.
As a first step, the new venture plans to lease or sell 10 prototypes next
year, targetting hospitals and nursing-care facilities at home and abroad,
Sankai said.
>>>>>>>>>
I want one!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A mid-term goal for the project is to sell some 100 suits a year at a price
of one million yen (8,440 dollars).
>>>>>>>>>
$8K?! Gimme!
>>>>>>>>>>>
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).
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Extremely transhuman idea....
-randy
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