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Robotics Technology

Japan Displays Prototype Robot Suit 239

Posted by samzenpus from the robotech-lite dept.
anaesthetica writes "A project at Tsukuba University has produced a battery-powered robot suit designed to aid the wearer in strength-related tasks, like lifting heavy objects. The suit also has the capability of propelling itself, which is potentially useful for helping the handicapped or elderly walk. The optimistic professor who lead the project stated, 'Humans may be able to mutate into supermen in the near future.'"
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Japan Displays Prototype Robot Suit More

Japan Displays Prototype Robot Suit

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  • We all saw what happened to the X-Men (Score:3, Funny)

    by NitsujTPU ( 19263 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:12PM (#12764170)
    Humans may be able to mutate into supermen in the near future

    This might be a problem for the humans involved though... We all saw what happened to the X-Men.
  • It can also move on its own accord, enabling it to help elderly or handicapped people walk, developers said.

    Coming soon to theatres, Terminator 4: Rise of the Suits

  • Obviously... (Score:5, Funny)

    by soupdevil ( 587476 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:13PM (#12764184)
    This optimistic inventor is not familiar with The Wrong Trousers.

  • First Generation Technology... (Score:5, Funny)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:13PM (#12764188)
    I think I'll wait until they come out with the Ultraman power suit model.
    • The photos are quite different from those shown by New Scientist. This newer suite also reinforces the arms, where the New Scientist model is only legs and torso. Also the motors in this new suite are much smaller and don't stick way out the sides.

      Dan East

  • Why dont the use EAPs (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    All this stuff is based on motors ... why not use EAP's instead (electro activated polymers)? I understand we have very good ones now that are superior to even human muscles and more weight / power efficient than motors. Would make the system less bulky and more fluid/without rigid parts.

  • I dunno... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:15PM (#12764201)
    If that guy can't pick up that small Japanese woman anyway, then that suite better do a lot of other stuff, too.

    But since she's not that much of a payload, the pictures might as well be of a guy wearing a Stormtrooper costume doing deep knee bends.

    • My thoughts exactly. I want to see the samll Japanese woman put on the suit and pick him up. Better yet, I want to see her pick up a car, or a 16 foot tall egg-laying alien queen.

      • I was wondering when someone would bring up Aliens. This is the first thing I thought of until I read the article. Ripley used an industrial version of this type of suit in that movie. The "suit" was a cross between this type of device and a forklift, and was used (when not fighting aliens) to move freight on the ship. Although the suit in the article is much smaller, it looks like it could be used for loads that are too heavy for a normal human, but too small for a fork lift.

    • Re:I dunno... (Score:5, Funny)

      by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:29PM (#12764317)
      If that guy can't pick up that small Japanese woman anyway, then that suite better do a lot of other stuff, too.

      Have you not seen Japanese anime before? The dorky guy always gets his butt kicked by the schoolgirls. The dorky guy needs a power suit to protect himself when tangling with the opposite sex.
    • my problem with the picture is that everything is strapped to the guys torso/arms/legs.....and the leg/arm assistant components only reach to his ankles/wrists.

      show me the loading dock exo-skeleton from 'aliens' and I'll be impressed. This guy is going to break his ankles if he dates larger women... maybe if they put some feet on it, he'll be able to carry his woman across the threshold with more than stumpy nubs left at the ends of his legs.

      And who would dare fight the alien queen in any color other th
    • If it takes a robotic suit for a geek to pick up women, then a robotic suit it is, regardless of strength and weight.
    • But since she's not that much of a payload, the pictures might as well be of a guy wearing a Stormtrooper costume doing deep knee bends.
      It's not quite a stormtrooper, but it's close [yimg.com]

  • scary (Score:5, Funny)

    by Eric Smith ( 4379 ) * on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:15PM (#12764205) Homepage Journal
    I, for one, welcome our new geriatric and quadriplegic robot-suit overlords.
    • Many years ago, back when the Sci-Fi channel had Anime Saturdays, they would run an anime movie or two in the morning. One movie, which I no longer can remember, featured a sophisticated robotic 'nanny' type device for geriatrics. It was a bed that could roll, walk, get food, etc. thanks to an AI. All I remember about the plot was that the bed of some old man either thoughut it was his wife, or it was his wife's brain or something and it took him through the city - destroying it in the process - to the b

  • Yet another successful prediction [paralinks.net] by The Onion [theonion.com]!

  • Be careful, though. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Eric Smith ( 4379 ) * on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:17PM (#12764225) Homepage Journal
    Make sure the inhibitor chip is well-protected.

  • Fogeys in Robot suits (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sssmashy ( 612587 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:18PM (#12764228)

    Japan has seen a growing market for technology geared toward the elderly, who are making up an increasing chunk of the population as fewer younger Japanese choose to start families.

    A government report last week showed that pensioners made up a record 19.5 percent of the country's population in 2004 and that the ratio will grow rapidly, surpassing 35 percent in 2050.

    Did anyone else shudder at the image of senior citizens ambling down the street in robot suits? Just imagine the damage potential.

    • Did anyone else shudder at the image of senior citizens ambling down the street in robot suits? Just imagine the damage potential.


      Bah, don't worry about it. They won't make it past ten miles an hour, regardless of what the suits can do. I'm more worried about the damage potential of a kid of the punk-ass variety.
    • I've already barely survived decades of them ambling down streets and highways inside of their 3 to 4 ton Cadillacs, how is this worse? And even more fearsome are impatient young male Chicago bus drivers in 15 ton WMD.

    • What about cars? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by janolder ( 536297 )
      And you find senior citizens of advanced age cruising down the street in their caddy at 50 miles an hour any less scary?

      Note: I have no beef with 99.9% of the senior population but my car was totaled by a member of the remaining 0.1% a few years back by him pulling onto a main street with blinders on. Daylight too. Luckily the old man survived without permanent injury. However, he'd have been better off letting someone else drive.

    • Did anyone else shudder at the image of senior citizens ambling down the street in robot suits? Just imagine the damage potential.

      Yeah, and they're always walking too slowly in front of you, with the turn indicator stuck on.

  • Bubblegum Crisis? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kusanagi374 ( 776658 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:18PM (#12764235)
    That sounded to me pretty much just like the kind of hardsuits that the Knight Sabers wore in Bubblegum Crisis. You'll know what I'm talking about if you've watched the anime.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubblegum_Crisis [wikipedia.org]

  • It Should Be Popular.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Steve B ( 42864 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:20PM (#12764243)
    It demonstrably helps the wearer pick up women [yimg.com].

  • Finally (Score:5, Funny)

    by MrNonchalant ( 767683 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:20PM (#12764248)
    Now I can be stronger and look more like a dork at the same time! Woohoo! Booyah.

    On a related note, check out the Japanese booth babes on the slide show.

    (Just kidding honey, if you're reading this.)

  • Uses... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Jambon ( 880922 )
    Sweet! So does this mean I will finally be able to do the robot right? Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto....
  • In related news... The creators of the HAL-5 mechanical suit mentioned their upcoming upgrade codenamed "HAL-9000". Possible new features included artificial intelligence taking care of the user's every need with voice activation...
    • Open my fly please, HAL.

      I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.

      C'mon HAL, I really gotta go!

      I'm sorry Dave, you should have thought of that before we left.

      HAL, you're really starting to piss me off.

      And so on and so forth, until Dave is electrocuted when he finally loses control of his bladder ("My God, it's full of sparks!").

  • Semi-useful (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cavemanf16 ( 303184 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:24PM (#12764274) Homepage Journal
    But this isn't going to be intuitive enough for many tasks I think. What we need is something similar to the "power suit" in Aliens, but without having it so directly attached to the wearer of the suit. In other words, my muscular motions should be interpreted within microseconds and the suit responds accordingly. To me it would only feel natural if walking around in a 2-ton suit of metal parts felt exactly the same as walking around in 2-pounds worth of clothing.

    • Re:Semi-useful (Score:2, Informative)

      by GameMaster ( 148118 )
      Not sure if you RTFA but they don't explain it quite as well in this one as they do in the last one slashdot posted about this suit. They mention that this suit measures the slight magnetic field generated on your skin when your brain tells your muscles to do something. In the previous article slashdot posted about this suit they mentioned that using this interface they can actually make the suit respond faster than your own muscles can respond to the message being sent by your brain. At that point they sho

  • Lift "heavy loads" (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ghostgate ( 800445 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:25PM (#12764283)
    I like the picture caption that says the robot suit will help you lift "heavy loads", while the picture shows the guy carrying a woman. I'm sure she will be thrilled to find herself described in such a way. ;)
  • That article says that the suit can "move on it's own." I wonder if such a thing could eventually be used to get, for example, an unconscious firefighter out of a burning builder, etc. Now that would be a great use of technology.

  • The tide is turning... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:28PM (#12764303)
    ...a whole new chapter in the jocks vs. nerds war.

  • I just hope (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I hope the suit is not able to execute a virus that forces one to punch himself repeatedly or jump out a window and run down the road like Steve Austin.

  • Supermen? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ThatsNotFunny ( 775189 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:33PM (#12764339)
    Humans may be able to mutate into supermen in the near future

    Ironicly, I just got Viagra Spam that used that exact same phrasing...

  • Wait till you see what happens.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:34PM (#12764349) Homepage Journal
    ... when you put five of these together!!
  • Yes, but can you control it with your mind using the Wing Zero System?

  • Sheesh - a geek alright... (Score:3, Funny)

    by HermanAB ( 661181 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:43PM (#12764381)
    Oh man, he needs a robot suit to carry his girlfriend. That sure won't earn him any Brownie points...
  • From the pictures, I'd swear there's no motors or anything in that suit.. I'd bet that the 'prototype' is just a mock-up of the real suit that doesn't exist yet. I mean, the woman look all that heavy to me. It's certainly possible for a man of his stature and age to be able to lift a woman of her size with both arms and her arm around his neck relieving some of the weight. Lemme know when he can pick up fifteen scuba cylinders or something.

  • good way to lose a hand... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by saleenS281 ( 859657 ) on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @08:45PM (#12764397) Homepage
    I see that there are no gloves for this suit. So... in theory, you have arms that can lift 800lbs, with hands and fingers that will tear off your body at ~500lbs (assuming it's fragile little thing like that guy).

    Remind me again why you would want to be able to have superhuman strength when all it's going to do is cause you to smash a body part if not amputate yourself by accident.
  • Why do you persist in calling these sorts of things robots? They are waldos of one sort or another (this one seems to be simply a powered suit).
  • powered labor suits [iimetro.com.au].

    Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I am an anime otaku.

  • "Robot suit?!" (Score:3, Informative)

    by mbrother ( 739193 ) * <<ude.oywu> <ta> <rehtorbm>> on Wednesday June 08, 2005 @10:00PM (#12764873) Homepage
    This is called an exoskeleton, not a "robot suit!"

    Sheesh.
  • The 15-kilogram (33-pound) battery-powered suit, code-named HAL-5

    Are they TRYING to make killer robots?

  • Yeah well.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by InsideTheAsylum ( 836659 )
    It's still not as cool as this...

    Triggur's Mech [triggur.org] (Triggur, forgive me!)

  • I'll Be Impressed (Score:3, Funny)

    by Master of Transhuman ( 597628 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @01:03AM (#12765830) Homepage

    when I see this guy pick up an AMERICAN girl instead of a tiny Japanese girl! A FAT American girl!
  • If you go through the pictures there is a Humanoid robot Repliee Qi covered with skin-like substance. She "moves her mouth". I wonder what for?
  • Due to the limitations in battery technology, if the unit is unplugged, it can only run 1 minute at full power, or 5 minutes otherwise.

    Apparently, they also can only be piloted by 14-year-olds. On top of that, these things have a mind of their own, so be careful!

  • Thank God, just in time... (Score:3, Funny)

    by airship ( 242862 ) on Thursday June 09, 2005 @08:49AM (#12768162) Homepage
    This invention has come along just in time. I was at the practical limits of being able to move my fat ass around by the meager power of my wimpy atrophied geek muscles alone. Now I can quit worrying about gaining more weight! Time to sit back down at my computer and order another delicious cheesy pizza!

  • You could have the exoskeleton partially resist every muscle movement. Then it becomes an exercise suit.

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