Coming Soon — Cyborg Farmers

palegray.net writes Robots.net covers an article about robotic exoskeletons for Japanese farmers. These exoskeletons would provide increased strength and support for manual labor intensive tasks. More information can also be found at robots-dreams.com. 'The robotic suit relies on ultrasonic motors along with various sensors and wireless networking gear. [...] The mass-produced version of the suit is expected to weigh in at 8 kilograms and cost about 200,000 yen.'"

Wait a second.

I thought the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture wasn't in charge of Gundam.

Nifty advances

Not the first time Japanese agriculture spins out some interesting stuff. Check out their UAV helicopters: http://www.gizmag.com/go/2440/ [gizmag.com].

¥200,000 = $1834.55

Something about this sounds fishy.... I find it hard to believe that it would cost less than $2,000 to turn in to RoboCop.

Re:¥200,000 = $1834.55

I find it hard to believe that it would cost less than $2,000 to turn in to RoboCop

You're leaving out the cost of weapons.

Re:

Maybe he means the British RoboCop?

Re:¥200,000 = $1834.55

Well, it's not really a robotic suit, it's a robotic "assist" suit. It doesn't do anything by itself, it's just a few servos with some quality sensors attached and calibtrated to the wearers movement. It helps prevent fatigue by helping the farmer balance, stand and squat, and remain bent over for long periods of time.

the software behind it isn't anything radical, and since then motors don't apply force, just resistance, most of the work is done with very little power. (power is needed to turn on and off the motor, but not to actually move limbs, so it;s kind of like assisted breaking, or power steering, but for the body.)

It's a lot more simple than people think to make it out. Many of the componenets are slight upgrades to common hobby gear... the sensors are where the real magic is, allowing the suit to move fluidly with the wearer and sense when to support and when to assist. Other than that, it's not more than a fancy mechanical brace. $2000 USD is completely beievable.

Also, misprint in the article states 8KG. It's 18KG (about 40 lbs).

Re:

Maybe they are trying to get these to as many people as possible

Coming soon: The OEPC project...?

Get away from her...

you Bitch!!

I hope...

I hope I wasn't really the ONLY one whose first thought was "well that pretty much decides the whole illegal immigrant discussion once the migrant workers get cybernetic exoskeletons"...

I, for one, welcome our cybernetic illegal immigrant overlords.

um... I mean... I, para uno, dan la bienvenida a nuestros overlords inmigrantes ilegales cibernéticos.

(thanks babelfish)

Re:I hope...

um... I mean... I, para uno, dan la bienvenida a nuestros overlords inmigrantes ilegales cibernéticos. (thanks babelfish)

The last time I heard someone used Babelfish, it was in reference to some manner of diplomatic incident [theinquirer.net].

Seeing as how Japanese cyborgs are involved, I feel you just opened up a whole can of worms. Good going, man. Good going.

Re:

You mean, The 6 Million Peso Man [youtube.com]?

Robot *what*?

Japanese farmers driving exoskeletons?

Don't I seem to recall something else Japanese farmers are famous for?

Oh, that's right. Ninjas.

Nothing but awesome can come from this.

Rice-planters Better Than Rice Lifters

While this suit is totally cool, I think bigger, mass-production robots like this rice-planting robot [web-japan.org] are far more practical. The robot suit is indeed a technological breakthrough, but I think robots that can help more than one person at a time are far more valuable. Or, check out these weed-killers [primidi.com].

Robots aren't strong

Maybe it's just me, but most robots I've seen aren't that strong. Most can be outdone pretty easily by a human the is in good shape. There are some strong robots, but they are extremely large, and not the kind that could be worked into a suit that would be worn by a human. Also, what advantage does this offer over typical farm machinery that isn't in a human exoskeleton form factor?

Sounds familiar

I watched a movie about this recently. "RoboCrop", I think it was called.

Better Check My Policy.

Must make sure my Old Glory Insurance is current.

Re:WTF are "Ultrasonic Motors?"

Apparently not http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic_motor [wikipedia.org]

Re:

Thanks for the info, but I found that article to be impenetrable. So I went surfing for a more remedial explaination:

A decent explaination about how these things work.
http://www.tky.3web.ne.jp/~usrmotor/English/html/principlesandStructure.html [3web.ne.jp]

NASA JPL ima

Re:WTF are "Ultrasonic Motors?"

Check out this crazy concept: Type "Ultrasonic motor" into this new fangled search site called Google. It pointed me to this free, (seriously: it's free!) encyclopedia called Wikipedia. The link talked all about ultrasonic motors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic_motor [wikipedia.org]. Seems they are commonly used in cameras. I bet other links would give even more information.

Re:BS

Also, at $1800 per, your not going to see people investing in these when they can just hire some cheap child labor.

What country do you think Japan is in?

This is not China or India. They do not have "cheap child labour". This is the country with the highest per-capita wages in the world. This is where labour is at its most expensive. This is also the country where children go to school 10 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week, from the age when they can hold a pencil until they go to university. There's no child labour at all, let alone cheap.

Re:

The Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam [bbc.co.uk]

Re:

No, they're equipped with testicles and yes Japanese schoolgirls will flee!

Re:Tractors

In America these are called tractors.

In America they grow mostly maize and wheat, which can be easily automated by dragging heavy machinery across the top of the soil. In Japan they grow mostly fruit and vegetables, which have to be carefully picked from the plants. Tractors are just not that useful to them, which is why they don't really use them. Harvesting is mostly done by hand because the land of genius automation has not been able to find a way to automate it - until now (maybe).

Here's a hint at the problems they have to deal with: the Japanese radish (one of their staple vegetables) is a foot long and about three inches wide. It takes a lot of careful pulling to get something that size out of the ground without damaging it.

Re:Tractors

Try picking strawberries with a tractor. There's a lot of hand-picked produce out there still, and that's quite literally back breaking labor. Some sort of mechanical support could make farming a whole lot more humane. Of course in our economy, we have illegal immigrants to pick our fruit and nobody cares about their knees anyway.

Re:

Wonder when they will start making them look like Daleks.

Good point. With handicap ramps now the norm in building construction, they'll be quite practical too.

...

Wanted: apartment in multi-story building with no elevator. Close proximity to gun store p