New robotic exoskeleton aims to help farmers combat age, mutant plants
By Donald Melanson 
posted Jan 13th 2009 9:50PM
posted Jan 13th 2009 9:50PM
Well, it looks like there's been yet another development in the exoskeleton arms race between the US and Japan, with this latest entrant from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology promising to help farmers and gardeners deal better with old age and increasingly unwieldy crops. This one weighs in at a somewhat hefty 55 pounds but, like most such exoskeletons, it's able to offload most of its own weight thanks to the use of eight motors and 16 sensors, which also, of course, help to give its wearer some super-strength. Better still, the researchers say the suit could be available in as soon as three years, and cost somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000.
[Via Engadget German]
[Via Engadget German]
Is it solar/bitterness powered?
1up
Looks like that guy is getting humped some type of cyborg dog
Why is that dude from Heroes farming?
What? No jump boots?
we american have one too.
we plan to use ours for killins though
just imagine when skynet gains self-awareness, everyone wearing this would be...
Really? Another Skynet comment? How many times you going to beat that dead horse till you realize it's dead...
What the hell kind of farmer can afford a five to ten THOUSAND dollar exoskeleton ?
ummm... farm equipment is ungodly expensive
5-10k for a suit to help aging farmers (since no young people want to go into this field which is a dman shame btw) is a small price to pay.
you'd be surprised how wealthy some farmers are.
A combine costs as much as a house. But I still don't see an old farmer buying a high-tech, expensive device that he's never heard of.
@ Scott
....Depending on what the deale.... errr.. 'farmer' decides to grow!
dont worry the cost will be allocated the final product....
does anyone want a $5000 tomato?
how about $6000 apple?
What kind of farmer would buy this thing? The same guy that shouts that his farm belongs to him and he will not give it away to anyone, and then shoots rifle at "invaders"...
@Ayman
This is Engadget! People would pay $6000 for any Apple!
/stab
Clark Kent works on a farm....if the rest of us want to be Superman we just need some meteor rock...
Won't we be farming in space aboard some elevator style spindle ala William Gibson/Tricia Sullivan novel?
Can the motors help in super fast se.. Nevermind
Or, you could just eat the mutant spinach and harvest the rest of the veggies with your giant Popeye arms.
So this is Robotech/Macross-the Farmer Saga?
Dear Jobstaxi spammer:
You're banned.
Bye bye.
You're my hero!
Hopefully the Japanese never find out our secret program to put googly eyes on all those unwieldy crops. You know, bring em down to our level. Won't need no stinkin exoskeleton.
1. Invent robotic exoskeleton
2. Create mutant plants
3. Combine the above with Japanese farmers
4. ...
5. Profit!
6. (optional) Welcome our new cyberplant overlords.
You forgot the '???'
attention self: lern2punctuation
(? and . are so close on the keyboard)
@gonintendo
thanks :D
for those who can't put 2 and 2 together:
1. Invent robotic exoskeleton
2. Create mutant plants
3. Combine the above with Japanese farmers
4. ???
5. Profit!
6. (optional) Welcome our new cyberplant overlords.
Looks heavy. Probably need someone already wearing an exosuit to help your put on your exosuit.
I think if I was a farmer I'd wait till the next version of this. Everything gets smaller in the future. ^__^
I cant wait until some pot farmers get busted with one of these. i wonder what the cops would think?
Oh, do they think now?
I'm waiting for the exo-suit from Aliens.
then you would be truly old and fighting mutant plants
japanese gordon freeman, amirite?
Gordon Fleeman?
Sorry it was too easy >.<
Bwahaha! Weeds shall fear my super-strength!
Maybe you could pull up trees?
Hey the exorobot thing is supposed to save the planet, not rip up trees!! sorry bout the spelling. I can't stop laughing yet. The guy looks like he's trying to do a terd!
Maximum Rice.
Crysis: Rice Cultivation
On a real farm it wont be long before you get stuck in the mud
I imagine that problem could be solved by using a larger sole.
What's Hiro doing with Tin Pots on his arms and legs?
Obviously not as sexy as the HAL suit, but this looks like it packs more muscle.
But can it play Crysis? (I'm sorry. I had to do that... brace for lowest ranked)
So is it just me, or upon closer examination do those gray and black cylinders look like DVD/CD-R 50 Pack Cases?? I mean for 5-10k I would be pissed if it looked like it was created using s*** from a Best Buy dumpster.
These Exoskeletons are great and all, but when it comes to enhancing the human body, we've never developed something that is purely beneficial. Everything has had it's consequences, so the main consequences I could see here are the vast increases in strain on our skeleton. Has anyone done a study to measure this kind of impact?
He looks like the coffee can version of a one man band.
Hmmm, since it's already a Japanese invention, I think they'll need to send it to Korea to be miniaturized, Germany to be stylized and China to be manufactured. I'm just saying.
watch out! them there be triffids!
I for one welcome our new robotic-inbread-crop-growing overlords.
Oh great.
They really do plan on working us all until we drop.
And then some more.
Japanese people have been commuting in mecha suits for decades now.
Source: Anime (they're based on true stories)
[In Doctor Evil Voice]: Riiight.
> help farmers combat [...] mutant plants
Well, apparently Engadget reporters never tried to actually pull normal sized radish (or even carrot!) from the ground once.
I did. That's one hell of a job. That's why actually nobody's pulling them manually, normally resorting to specialized machines.
. . . for heavy gardening tasks : Pulling out over-grown grass roots . . .
Just make sure you use your legs.
not a single ironman reference? I'm kinda disappointed.
Ok...
Heavy boots of lead. Fills his victims full of dread. Running as fast as they can. Iron man lives again!
I wonder how many big 40kg bags of fertilizer you could carry with the help of the exoskeleton.