New HAL Exoskeleton: A Brain-Controlled Full Body Suit To Be Used In Fukushima

An anonymous reader writes "Cyberdyne announced today an improved version of the HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) robotic exoskeleton at the Japan Robot Show. From the article: 'he latest version of the HAL has remained brain-controlled but evolved to a full body robot suit that protects against heavy radiation without feeling the weight of the suit. Eventually it could be used by workers dismantling the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant."

Powersuit's good, but why use humans in Fukushima?

[siddesu]

Why not put a well-shielded controller instead and have the people control it remotely from a safe location? Well, it is Japan, the land of the weird ideas.

Re:Powersuit's good, but why use humans in Fukushi

[siddesu]

The same way TEPCO controlled the third-party workers, who were told not to wear radiation badges -- via optical fiber from Tokyo, of course. As for versatile, yeah, humans are not only more versatile, they are also a lot cheaper. Why invest in capable robots at all?