7/8/2005

Well, the Yahoo News article has been removed, which made me realize how old this news is. But better late then never when it comes to very futuristic science-fiction, because by the time it is posted here on 3Yen, its coming into reality retail will still be very far away in years to come. Hopefully I am wrong…

In this AFP news, a “robot suit” built by a team at the Tsukuba University could soon be the solution for workers to lift heavy loads or people with disabilities to climb stairs. This exoskeleton weighs 15 kilogram, is battery-powered, and works by detecting muscle movements and amplifying them. It can also move by itself, to help elderly or handicapped people walk.

Of course, the prototype will be displayed at the Aichi World Exposition. If you go to Aichi, please send us a note.

As always with articles about robotics, there was a mention of the need for such technology here, because of the fact that elderly are becoming increasingly numerous in Japan and the young doctors expected to take care of them getting scarcer. They mentioned figures from a government report saying 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″.