Slashdot Mirror
Japan Displays Prototype Robot Suit
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.'"
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.
Is it just me or does he look like a Transformer?
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
~Ilyanep
To get message, take amount of carrier pigeons at each stage mod 2. Then decode binary.
This optimistic inventor is not familiar with The Wrong Trousers.
I think I'll wait until they come out with the Ultraman power suit model.
Here: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/ 11/007207
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
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.
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.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I, for one, welcome our new geriatric and quadriplegic robot-suit overlords.
It works by enhancing muscle movements. You move a muscle a little, the exoskeleton translates that into a much larger movement. Handicapped people (paras, quads) do not have muscle control in their handicapped limbs, so this exoskeleton can't help them.
FTA:
The 15-kilogram (33-pound) battery-powered suit, code-named HAL-5, detects muscle movements through electrical-signal flows on the skin surface and then amplifies them. It can also move on its own accord, enabling it to help elderly or handicapped people walk, developers said.
Thanks for playing.
Yet another successful prediction by The Onion!
Make sure the inhibitor chip is well-protected.
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.
We're moving this weekend, and this will certainly help on moving the washer, dryer, fridge, and couch.
As long as next they invent a queen alien so that you can wear the robot suit and say "get away from her, you bitch!"
"show me all the blueprint show me all the blueprint show me all the blueprints"
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
It demonstrably helps the wearer pick up women.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
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.)
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...
On the other hand, you could put heavy polycarbonate armour on it and make your riot cops safer.
How? The only things I can think of that help against such guerilla tactics are good armor and staying alert. Anyhow, who needs super strength when you have good ol' firepower?
Happy people make bad consumers.
The military been looking at this technology for years. With the open framework model featured in the article, handling explosives or doing hand-to-hand combat wouldn't be a good idea.
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.
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.
http://www.busyweather.com/
...a whole new chapter in the jocks vs. nerds war.
Why is it that all Japanese inventions are intended "to help the elderly"?
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.
Humans may be able to mutate into supermen in the near future
Ironicly, I just got Viagra Spam that used that exact same phrasing...
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
Unless it's tapping directly into their brains (which it isn't), those signals aren't getting transmitted to the point where handicapped people will be allowed to walk.
I suppose if you expanded the group of "handicapped" to include those suffering from polio and other diseases that result muscular dystrophy, then I can see this argued, but paraplegics and quadraplegics are not going to be helped, despite the claims of the article.
And I'll take -1 Offtopic again for saying so.
... when you put five of these together!!
"Derp de derp."
the combat environment is more complex and demanding than the loading dock and you won't find power-ups hidden behind every crate.
Yes, but can you control it with your mind using the Wing Zero System?
[Insert pithy quote here]
Oh man, he needs a robot suit to carry his girlfriend. That sure won't earn him any Brownie points...
Oh well, what the hell...
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.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
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.
He actually had the strength to lift an asian woman!
Besides the novella about the rise to power and eventual defeat of a despotic religious political movement in the US in REVOLT IN 2010, he wrote many other works.
Unlike the movies and animated TV series adopted from the original work. Heinlein's original book, STARSHIP TROOPERS, had Johnny Rico wearing his Mobile Infantry Power Suite leaping over the enemy city with rocket assisted steps, looking at his heads-up display and tossing 25-second bombs ("I'm a 25 second bomb, I'm a 25 second bomb...") into crowded movie theatres. The Power Suite was what made the Mobile Infantry different from previous ground pounders
It also went into a whole explaination of a new social order of Citizens and Residents left out of the recent entertainment video releases.
Initial use in "hot areas" could happen in weeks or months.
Two other fun reads from 60-70's and his younger reader phase are THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS for computer assisted revolution and JOB: A DIVINE COMEDY to teach not taking things too seriously.
AZhun
a bright tomorrow comes by new mistakes not by repeating the old ones
Handy against Freedom Fighters?
Why am I not rapping? I am rapping with you in a way.
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.
In Korea, only old people use robot suits...
A fucked up society of techno weenies: The adults are getting old and their children are committing suicide...
Well, someone had to say it.
Oh well, what the hell...
as human muscle at the moment. Even the best ones get absolutely wasted by little girls in arm-wrestling competitions.
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).
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Ok...it's an improvement on size. But this is already demonstrated by UC Berkeley on a heavier scale
So the virus will make the wearer kick himself in the nuts and yank his chin into his own shoulder?!?
...oh, that Steve. I love that weird slo-mo sound effect. As long as I don't have to hear it every time I flex my leg muscles...
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Did anyone else read that as 'Japanese Robot SLUT'?
I'm out of my mind, leave a message.
Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I am an anime otaku.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
If Stephen Hawking is so damn smart, how come he didn't invent something like this?
Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a Q-Tip. - Homer Simpson
This however, with the normal human body, caused the user to move slightly, causing mjonir to change position so fast that it broke the bones inside the body, then causing spasm which further increased the damage. Only the genetically enhanced humans could take the strain because of their strong skeletal and muscular systems.
"What does slashdotting mean?"
"You've never heard of slashdot?"
"I know it makes websites not work."
I would be much more worried if someone wears it while, uhm, satisfying him/herself
I HAVEN'T OWNED A TELEVISION SINCE 1967 AND ONLY WATCH MOVIES ABOUT LEFT-HANDED ALEUT LESBIAN PIPEWELDERS! FUCK HOLLYWOO
i saw the guy picking up either 3 bags of rice or 3 bags of sand on international tv in the morning. it was pretty amazing...
thats so stereotypical. that was kinda offending to me because im from japan...
'Humans may be able to mutate into supermen in the near future.'" Well, that makes it all worth it then. Hundreds upon hundreds of bionic "supermen" is just what this world needs...
But that's not true. The older adults are the ones committing suicide, mostly.
Yes, freedom fighters. Fighting against a despotic, occupying force, perhaps.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
This is called an exoskeleton, not a "robot suit!"
Sheesh.
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
The elderly can't use anything more technologically advanced than a refridgerator without maiming someone. This can only end in tears.
Bad puns gave me bad karma. =(
The 15-kilogram (33-pound) battery-powered suit, code-named HAL-5
Are they TRYING to make killer robots?
You can't take the sky from me...
1st thing I thought was "what's an obv. wrong trousers quote?"
can't think of one, so here's a picture
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
The suicide thing is inevitable, due to the improvements in medical care. Many people reach a point where they just don't want to carry on with the struggle and the doctors do not want to let them go.
In larger countries, many people purposely retire in little towns and villages, where they can die one day in peace, without danger of ending up in a hospital, hooked onto some machine. Japan, being small, has good hospitals pretty much everywhere, making the 'natural death' option impossible.
Oh well, what the hell...
Reminds me of Half-Life . . .
MOUNT TAPE U1439 ON B3, NO RING
They were working on somthing like this a while ago.
Last I heard, it was a little buggy. I don't know if they ever rolled it out.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
Neighbor buys robo suit to combat bullies.. 30,000 Hospital bill for bullies... 15,000 2 new double-A batterys for your garage door control that makes him breakdance.....priceless
good credit is the worst thing that ever happened to me.
It's still not as cool as this...
Triggur's Mech (Triggur, forgive me!)
Now all we need is a group of angsty teenagers and we'll have ourselves a live-action anime!
ITYM "Revolt in 2100".
But yes, certain of the themes could be interesting today.
not unless it's vibrating
I'm currently finishing up a year-long exchange study at Tsukuba University, so it's nice to hear something good come out from here.
There's five Ss about Tsukuba that everyone should know:
1. Science
2. Study
3. Sports
4. Sex
5. Suicide
There's so little to do where the college is located that this school has a bad reputation for suicides. I guess it's gotten better since it gained that reputation because I haven't heard any stories about people killing themselves while I've been here.
As for myself, I've been doing 3 and 4, and occasionally number 2.
when I see this guy pick up an AMERICAN girl instead of a tiny Japanese girl! A FAT American girl!
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
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?
the idea was that robot suits called LABORs were used for general, well, labor. Since they were ubiquitous and easy to use, it was only a matter of time before criminals simply walked down to the nearest hardware dealer and bought one to rob a bank with.
So the police buy some, paint them blue and strap big guns to them and call them PATROL LABORs (which nobody says because it takes too long).
Queue anime fun.
How long does the batt last?
Charging Times?
Maximum walking/runing speed?
Max Lifting power?
Can you call out the AA (AAA to your colonial cousins) if it wont start?
And finaly are there force limmiters to prevent joint damage from over exersion?
If the stats are good I'm signing up with Exo-Squad!
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
the combat environment is more complex and demanding than the loading dock and you won't find power-ups hidden behind every crate.
Maybe not, but if you carry your trusty crow bar not only can you silently off some guards but I bet you could even bust some crates and find ammo or a new weapon (maybe even more powerful than your old one)!
------- Sorry about the spelling, I suffer from two problems. Dyslexia makes it difficult to spell well, lazy makes it
Here in the uk they will be banned, as they will be 'dangerous'. Only military, police and criminals will have them.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
"How? The only things I can think of that help against such guerilla tactics are good armor and staying alert. Anyhow, who needs super strength when you have good ol' firepower?"
Which is exactly why and what for: to enable soldiers to carry more armour and dish out more firepower.
Don't think for a moment that military applications of super-strength will mean Superman-style punching villains in the face. It won't. Ever.
However a major topic throughough the last century has been the weight of ammo and equipment a soldier has to carry. It's a real issue. That's one of the reasons (among other factors) why we've moved to smaller calibres.
Put some powered armour on those soldiers and suddenly they can carry a lot more heavy weaponry and ammo.
Individual armour has also been discarded precisely because of weight considerations: you _could_ make a breastplate that could stop a rifle round, but it was impractically heavy.
Now think the other way around: if you have an armoured exo-skeleton, you can carry enough armour at least over the vital organs to stop even a 7.62mm round or shrapnel from hand grenades and pipe bombs. _And_ this time it's without a mobility penalty.
You've just made life harder for the enemy soldiers, because now they need to lug around bigger weaponry to take you out, which limits _their_ mobility.
But perhaps more importantly, and this is really what makes it a wet dream for the military is: enabling soldiers to carry more electronics and a sattellite connection. Giving at least one soldier per squad enough electronics to know exactly where the enemy is, what's happening, where is the squad needed, what should they avoid, etc, is something that can give a _huge_ advantage.
Nations have been defeated before because basically their chain of command didn't react fast enough. E.g., that's why large armies like those of France or Poland crumbled in the face of Blitzkrieg in WW2. They just weren't prepared to react at that speed.
Or the USSR in WW2 was massively handicapped by their lack of radios on their tanks.
Now picture giving each squad a direct link to their officers _all_ the time. Bidirectional. You can know _exactly_ what's happening at each point, in real time, and the soldiers can know exactly what's expected of them. You can instantly see when your troops are being pinned and flanked, and how, and you can tell them exactly how to counter it. Better yet they too can see a bigger picture and react in a more intelligent manner.
It's something that can really make or break a battle.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
"When everyone's super, no one will be!"
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!
this is a ripoff from a jackie chan movie! http://imdb.com/title/tt0290095/
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!
Serving your airship needs since 1995.
You could have the exoskeleton partially resist every muscle movement. Then it becomes an exercise suit.
"This quote is a product of the Frobozz Magic Quote Company."
While Japan wastes their time building robotic slaves to assist and augment their citizenry, we in America use "willing workers" to accomplish the same.
Place the citizen on the shoulders of two undocumented workers, they are the "legs". Now, stand one undocumented worker behind the perched citizen, the feet firmly positioned onto the outer shoulders of the "legs". He is the "arms". Insert another undocumented worker if reproductive functionality will be required.
Diversity is our strength!
While I agree Heinlein's _Starship Troopers_ should be front and center in any such discussion, todays high-tech battlefield may not be very appropriate for such given advancements in sensor gear and weaponry &c. A Barrett XM-109 25mm sniper rifle would probably wreck the day of a guy wearing a powered suit.
An interesting counter-example was Timothy Zahn's excellent book, _Blackcollar_ about a group of soldiers developed in lieu of using ``walking tanks''.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Mods: I left the topic back at Mars. Feel free to mod accordingly.
To CyricZ,
Freedom Fighters?
More like Stupid Fighters.
Lemme see. Totalitarian regime is toppled through
a well meaning albeit severely decieved miltary force. Miltary force sets up government designed for and by the people freed from the Totalitarian regime. Miltary rebuilds destroyed infrastructure. Military force goes home.
Simple right. No.
Freedom Fighters who don't like the military force want them gone. So they start delaying the process for the miltary force to go home. SO THE MILITARY FORCE HAS TO STAY LONGER! DUH! Thus Stupid Fighters.
The US miltary/Executive Branch wants this:
Rebuild Iraqi infrastructure.
Setup stable democratic government.
That's it. Yes, yes I know. I live in a fantasy world which believes the military would ever leave Iraq. Well, I'm a US citizen. When these goals are accomplished. I and ever other US citizen who is sick of this war is going to diplomatically go screaming apeshit to the Executive and Legislative Branches (cause you can do that in a Democracy/Constitutional Republic or whatever you want to call it) and demand that every one of our soldiers is pulled from Iraq, since it is no longer necessary for them to be there.
Yea, the US military invaded Iraq under false pretenses. Yes, the US military is currently occupying Iraq. Why would you halt the process that removes the US military from your country unless you are a former member of Saddam Hussein's regime, an Al-Queda operative, or someone with a bone to pick with the US military. When the military is gone, then do whatever the heck you want, since you have a stable government that yours!
As a US citizen I understand that the war in Iraq whether justified or unjustified is a moot point. We are required to stay there until the two afored mentioned goals are met. The alternative is leaving behind a great many empty promises to the Iraqi people (even more empty than the ones now) and create and unstable environment in which even more vitrol filled anti US terrorist organizations will be created to be thrown against us. Having alot of people jobless, angry and without utilties or food distribution is not a way to leave anyone.
As US citizen (if I haven't mentioned it numerous times before), a terrorists is someone who . . I dunno , SMACKS SOME PLANES INTO SOME OF BUILDINGS! **Haaaahhhh** okay got that off my chest.
I don't know what you relative perspective is, but mine is that the majority of our armed forces over there want to genuinely help people out. Aside from those assholes in Abu Ghraib. Notice this.
If the US military is such as despotic occupying force then why is it that we actually punished those abuses instead of letting them go on like the former Totalitarian regime did?
Why are we as a nation concerned about that? Maybe because some people might actually give two shits? I mean even in this war for oil travesty, isn't the US military doing a better job? Albeit, if the miltary was doing a great job there wouldn't be any abuses what so ever.
I'm sure if you are in the knee jerk Anti-Bush viewpoint that you'll schluff this off and go on with your life. But I don't like Bush or his administration either. If you are in rational disagreement with what I have said I'm curious to hear your opinion and justification. I've barely mentioned many confirmed facts, so feel free to post any contrary credible information.
/(taken from some site from (theoretically) the script, then modified a bit to match what I remember of the movie version)/
RIPLEY: I feel like a fifth wheel here. Is there anything I can do?
APONE: I don't know. Is there anything you can do?
RIPLEY: (pointing) Well, I can drive that loader. I've got a Class Two rating.
(Apone turns. A SECOND POWER LOADER sits unused in an equipment bay.
(TWO SHOT APONE AND HICKS skeptical. Considering. TIGHT ON POWER SWITCH as Ripley's finger punches it on. A RISING WHINE of power. TIGHT ON THE HYDRAULICS as the massive machine stirs to life.
(FULL, as the loader starts. Ripley is strapped into the safety cage, her arms and legs inserted in the servo-sensor assemblies. She takes a step. BOOM! Two tons of hardened steel takes a step.
(Ripley spins the wrist servos. The huge claws swing, open...slide smoothly into lifting brackets on a cargo module, nearby. She raises it deftly.)
RIPLEY: (mock sexy voice) Where do ya want it?
(Hicks and Apone chuckle and smile at her joke)
APONE: Bay 12, please.
Furry cows moo and decompress.
I never said anything about America or Bush. You did. Why are you going on such an anti-American rampage?
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
"Actually no, Poland lost because they sent :-D"
horsemen with swords against the German tanks
and assault rifled soldiers.
Actually, no, that stupidity was mentioned only once, by the Italians, in a propaganda piece. Even the Germans (i.e., the ones who actually fought there) did _not_ claim that.
And even in the Italian propaganda piece it was cavalry charges vs tanks yes, but _not_ swords vs tanks.
The actual accounts of that war showed the Polish army doing actually pretty well, considering that Germany had one helluva lot more tanks.
E.g., the new 37mm Polish AT-gun was _feared_ by the Germans. It caused tank crews to smear mud over the white cross on their turrets, because to the Polish AT guns it meant "shoot here."
E.g., the Polish tanks were actually pretty modern. A lot more modern than what the French had later. They just had way too few of them. But where they were used, they caused higher casualties to the Germans than they took.
And, oh, "assault rifled soldiers"? While the Germans did invent the assault rifle (against Hitler's explicit orders to drop that "useless" research), in '39 it was still _years_ before that. And contrary to Hollywood movies where every German soldier had a SMG, in reality very few did. Most German soldiers had bolt action rifles, and for close combat they were liberally issuing as many pistols as they could get even to soldiers.
The reason is one of doctrine. The Germans saw the machinegun (in Poland, the MG-34) as the centre piece of the squad, and the rest of the platoon was there more or less to support it.
Basically: no offense, but learn thy history before shooting thy mouth.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.