Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength

[Orgazmo]

Source

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.

Two control systems interact to help the wearer stand, walk and climb stairs. A "bio-cybernic" system uses bioelectric sensors attached to the skin on the legs to monitor signals transmitted from the brain to the muscles. It can do this because when someone intends to stand or walk, the nerve signal to the muscles generates a detectable electric current on the skin's surface. These currents are picked up by the sensors and sent to the computer, which translates the nerve signals into signals of its own for controlling electric motors at the hips and knees of the exoskeleton. It takes a fraction of a second for the motors to respond accordingly, and in fact they respond fractionally faster to the original signal from the brain than the wearer's muscles do.

“The motors respond faster to signals from the wearer's brain than their own muscles”While the bio-cybernic system moves individual elements of the exoskeleton, a second system provides autonomous robotic control of the motors to coordinate these movements and make a task easier overall, helping someone to walk, for instance. The system activates itself automatically once the user starts to move. The first time they walk, its sensors record posture and pattern of motion, and this information is stored in an onboard database for later use. When the user walks again, sensors alert the computer, which recognises the movement and regenerates the stored pattern to provide power-assisted movement. The actions of both systems can be calibrated according to a particular user's needs, for instance to give extra assistance to a weaker limb.

The HAL 4 and HAL 5 prototypes, which will also be demonstrated at Expo 2005, don't just help a person to walk. They have an upper part to assist the arms, and will help a person lift up to 40 kilograms more than they can manage unaided. The new HALs will also eliminate the need for a backpack. Instead, the computer and wireless connection have been shrunk to fit in a pouch attached to the suit's belt. HAL 5 also has smaller motor housings, making the suit much less bulky around the hips and knees.

HAL 3 weighs 22 kilograms, but the help it gives the user is more than enough to compensate for this. "It's like riding on a robot, rather than wearing one," says Sankai. He adds that HAL 4 will weigh 17 kilograms, and he hopes HAL 5 may be lighter still.

Sankai has had many requests for the devices from people with brain and spinal injuries, so he is planning to extend the suit's applications to include medical rehabilitation. The first commercial suits are likely to cost between 1.5 and 2 million yen ($14,000 to $19,000).



Oh fuck! It's happening!

[Repugnant Abomination]

Holy shit! This is the beginning of the Cyborg era!

[Ugly Bastard]

Its shit like this that will lead to me living to 200 years of age. Nice find, Orgazmo.

-Ugly Bastard

[Repugnant Abomination]

Of course they developed it in Japan. Japanese people are going to rule the world someday.

[Ugly Bastard]

Originally posted by Repugnant Abomination:
Japanese people are going to rule the world someday.

Agreed.

-Ugly Bastard

[Mr. Blonde]

Originally posted by Ugly Bastard:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Repugnant Abomination:
Japanese people are going to rule the world someday.

Agreed.

-Ugly Bastard</font>[/quote]
Umm, bullshit. Not if I can have anything to do with it, and I will.

[Repugnant Abomination]

You cant bench press your way outta this one tough guy.

[the Butcher]

Originally posted by Repugnant Abomination:
You cant bench press your way outta this one tough guy.

first of all...that was quite possibly the greatest comeback to ever grace my eyes.

secondly, fuck shit like this. what old person is seriously going to wear all this shit to help them live? i mean, how can they even hold all of this equipment up with their fragile bodies? cyborgs will never run the earth, because they are machines. machines only do what you tell them to do. therefore, if cyborgs one day rule the world, it will be because some dumb fuck screwed up and inputed the wrong info into the computer chip.

[Mr. Blonde]

No, but we can A-bomb our way out of it. We've done it before, we'll do it again!!!

[the Butcher]

Originally posted by Mr. Blonde:
No, but we can A-bomb our way out of it. We've done it before, we'll do it again!!!

best idea blonde has ever had. if we can end a war with a matter of two large pieces of metal and atoms, then goddammit, we can take out the same country for the hell of it using the same logic.

[Mr. Blonde]

Originally posted by the Butcher:
i mean, how can they even hold all of this equipment up with their fragile bodies?

HAL 3 weighs 22 kilograms, but the help it gives the user is more than enough to compensate for this. "It's like riding on a robot, rather than wearing one," says Sankai. He adds that HAL 4 will weigh 17 kilograms, and he hopes HAL 5 may be lighter still.

[ April 15, 2005, 01:31 AM: Message edited by: Mr. Blonde ]

[the Butcher]

you know, right after i typed that sentence, i figured that there was something about how it was amazingly light, but i just didn't bother to read the whole thing. i saw the little jap in the robot contraption and just didn't feel it was too necessary. i got the general idea.

[Repugnant Abomination]

Cyborgs aren't machines dude, they're humans with machine parts. The machine parts themselves have no intelligence.

[the Butcher]

then we're all fine. that is, unless a group of conservatives get these things. i mean, shit. they're all old, rich and power hungry, so of course they'll jump at the chance to be immortal and continue to fight the ever-declining morals of america.

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

you know, every cyborg i've ever seen has been white. Anyone ever seen a Jap Cyborg?

[Mr. Blonde]

there's been a few black cyborgs.

[Beebs]

Russian cyborg

[Ironic Mustache]

Originally posted by Beebs:
Russian cyborg

If Cyborg people start getting crazy Fedor is going to have to handle them all.