Cyberdyne’s HAL 5 suit builds upon the HAL 4, with upper as well as lower body augmentation.
exoskeletons
The fetish aspect of external, insect-like skeletons has made them a staple of science fiction. However, the utility is real, from the incredible Japanese Enryu rescue exoskeleton, which looks like a loader from the Aliens movie, to brain controlled limb enhancers.
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Incredibly, this thing is real. A 5 ton 10 foot high hydraulic exoskeletal mechanism for cutting through debris after a disaster such as an earthquake.
“Designed to help patients recover from partial paralysis. Sensors at the elbow and wrist allow a healthy arm to control the eight artificial muscles, which are powered by compressed air, on the paralyzed side.”
Artist, Stelarc is renowned for his augmented body art forms. Here he has built a giant spider like walking frame.
The Berkeley lower extremity exoskeleton cn be used to augment soldiers’ ability to carry heavy equipment for long periods of time.
Carlos Owens is an inventor, living in Alaska, where he is building an 18ft replica of a science fiction ‘mecha’.
The Human Neuromechanics Laboratory at the University of Michigan is devoted to the interaction between the nervous system and bone and muscles. It produces exoskeletal systems that a directly controlled by the brain - real life bionics.
This exoskeletal ’springwalker’ allows its wearers to gamble along at 35 miles an hour and to leap 5 feet into the air.
One of the victims of the Virginia Tech. campus killings was Kevin Granata. Kevin was an engineering and mechanics professor who developed this exoskeletal system to help people with a muscle wasting disease called sarcophenia.
Show here is one of a variety of mechanical exoskeletal systems which have been developed at the University of Delaware.
With an aging population gadgets for the elderly are becoming more and more important. This exoskeletal robotic system is shown here, exhibited at a rehabilitation convention in Tokyo.
HAL 3 is a system that was shown in 2005 at the Japan World Expo. It is a ‘bio-cybernic’ system which aids walking via an exoskeleton with skin sensors and a computerized monitoring system housed in a backpack.
Atsuo Takanishi, an engineering professor at Tokyo’s Waseda University developed this system as a potential replacement for wheelchairs, allowing its users to navigate up and down stairs.
Since 1990, researchers at Kanagawa have been developing ever more sophisticated exoskeletal suits such as this one, which can augment lifting heavy objects.
The 2007 Robogames included an exoskeletal weight lifting contest. Here is a video of one of the entries in action.
