HybridAssistiveLimb
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Japanese bankers get exosuits to help move stacks of cash
Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation announced Friday that it will provide Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) exosuits to select senior employees as part of a pilot program aimed at reducing the strain of moving currency. "There have been many cases when a physical burden was placed on senior employees carrying heavy parcels of banknotes and coins. By adopting Cyberdyne's robotic suits, we can help reduce that burden," Tomoyuki Narita, a spokesman at SMBC, told the Wall Street Journal. About 16 percent of Sumitomo's employees (and 25 percent of the nation) are over the age of 65. The HAL is designed to augment its user's strength, reducing the perceived weight of an item by 40 percent so that a 10-pound weight only "feels" like it weighs 6 pounds. Should the pilot program prove effective, Sumitomo could expand it to more branches throughout Japan. [Image credit: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp]
Cyberdyne turns its HAL exoskeleton into an anti-radiation suit
The original Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) suit was designed to help those with muscle diseases, but it's now been upgraded to cope with a very different type of problem: handling radioactive substances. One of the few wearable materials that can stop radiation is tungsten, which is extremely heavy: a typical tungsten vest weigh up to 132 pounds. When worn in conjunction with a HAL exoskeleton, however, a vest can be worn for lengthy periods without causing fatigue -- potentially allowing greater access to hazardous sites like Fukushima.
Cyberdyne HAL robotic arm hands-on (video)
If the name Cyberdyne doesn't immediately ring a bell, its HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) robotic suit sure will. Here at CEATEC, we bumped into these folks who kindly offered to strap us onto their latest prototype arm -- a slightly smaller variant of the one installed on Cyberdyne's current suit. Most of the HAL's main part was strapped to the outer side of our upper arm with velcro, while our wrist was tied to the much smaller extendable piece; both parts were hinged together with a power unit. Additionally, a sensory pad was applied onto our forearm's medial cutaneous nerve (around the elbow area) to pick up our muscular nerve signal -- similarly, Cyberdyne's lower-body exosuit requires two sensors on each leg. Our HAL was energized as soon as we tensed our arm muscles, so lifting up the tray of four 1.5kg water bottles was a piece of cake consistently throughout the demo -- we even managed it with just our pinky (see video above)! And as soon as Cyberdyne's lovely assistant Fumi turned the dial down, our superhuman powers were instantly taken away. We weren't given any dates or specs for this piece of kit, but if all goes well, we may well see a brand new full-body suit at CES 2012 in January, so stay tuned. Oh, and can someone please get Cyberdyne some WD-40? Zach Honig contributed to this report. %Gallery-135642%
HAL exosuit takes a Cybernic approach to disabled tourism
Cybernics -- it's not a typo, it's a completely new field that mixes cybernetics, mechatronics, and informatics with an all-human core. Pioneered by University of Tsukuba Professor Yoshiyuki Sankai, the Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) exosuit originally created to aid Japan's eldery has now found an even nobler mission -- assisting disabled tourists. Through detection of weak muscular bioelectrical impulses in the legs, this RoboCop-like lower body suit boosts its wearer's load-bearing abilities by a whopping 176 pounds. The exoskeleton tech first helped paralyzed Seiji Uchida nearly tackle Switzerland's Breithorn peak in 2006 and is now getting another go at the disabled traveler's bucket list. This time 'round, Uchida hopes his ride atop a HAL-outfitted human will successfully carry him to the top of Normandy's rugged Mont Saint-Michel, paving the way for other similarly handicapped travelers to do the same. Although the robotics in question here is more mech suit than say, dental training real doll, it's still a huge leg up for the nascent research industry that got its kick-start making a wish come true.
Cyberdyne demos lower-body HAL exoskeleton for helping the disabled, not eradicating mankind (video)
Cyberdyne's HAL (Hybrid Assistive limb) robotic suit has been kicking (stumbling?) around for years now, and at this year's Cybernics International Forum, the company demoed a couple of new iterations of the technology. We've seen the heavy-duty version of the technology scale a Swiss peak, but the new demo showcased a lighter and leaner lower-body suit (not unlike Lockheed's HULC system) meant for helping those with muscle diseases remain ambulatory. The differences between the new rig and previously seen full-body exoskeleton -- meant for use by health care professionals and factory workers to aid in heavy lifting -- are less robust servos and a slimmer profile allowing wearers to worry less over their looks and more over living their lives. Peep the bipedal bionics in action after the break.
HAL robot suit almost summits with quadriplegic man in tow
In another instance of overcoming physical limitations via the help of robotics, a 43-year old Japanese man has (almost) fulfilled his dream of climbing the 13,741-foot Breithorn mountain in Switzerland. Seiji Uchida, who has been paralyzed from the neck down for over two decades, was able to get within 500 yards of the mountaintop with the help of a HAL (hybrid assistive limb) suit worn by his pal Takeshi Matsumoto. We reported that this escapade was in the works a few months back, and thanks to the (completely legal) strength enhancing device developed by Tsukuba University engineering professor Yoshiyuki Sankai, Uchida enjoyed a first-class piggyback ride up the Klein Matterhorn. Sankai's HAL has been in development for 14 years, and has been dubbed a product of his startup company, Cyberdyne (hasn't this name been trademarked by now?). According to Cyberdyne, the HAL allows someone who can normally lift 220 pounds on a leg press to hoist 396 pounds, an impressive 80% increase. Sankai mentioned the HAL could perform under less-than-ideal weather situations including snow, and that his main goal was to use this Alpine climb to build an even better HAL to assist disabled individuals in achieving their dreams -- quite an uplifting objective, eh?
