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Tokyo Students Design a New Robotic Muscle Suit
angry tapir writes "Students at Tokyo's University of Science have developed a new version of their muscle suit, a wearable robotic suit that assists the muscles when carrying out strenuous tasks. The original version of the suit, which has been in production for several years, provides assistance to the arms and back but the new version provides assistance to the back only. That means it is lighter and more compact than the original model."
when i was a teenager and actually had muscles, i thought i was cool in a "muscle shirt". now that i'm old and have no muscles and a beer belly, i can wear a muscle suit! with a "power" tie, of course...
...that I have to get up off my backside to put it on? Does it involve being "outside"?
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm pretty sure I and most people would be able to bend down and lift the 15kg without robotic assistance...
I suffered from a slipped disk last year, and how much it was safe to carry was not limited by muscular strength, but by how much my back could take.
The student demoing the suit could do 30kg (~66lb) on his own, and 50kg (~110lb) assisted by the suit, that's a 60% increase in lifting capacity... Maybe MJOLNIR armor isn't too far off... Dibs on serial # 117.
P.S. I mean something that looks more kickass than this: http://dvice.com/archives/2007/01/reallife_halo_suit_is_develope.php
Geeks don't grock information, they grep it.
This muscle suit will fit the aging Japanese quite well. As a person progresses beyond 60 years of age, her mobility and strength decline rapidly. This suit will help to compensate for the declination.
On a side note, observe that Japan has long challenged conventional wisdom in the USA. In addition to proving that massive uncontrolled immigration is not the only answer to an aging population, the Japanese have proven the following.
1. Class size is not the prime determinant of academic success. Culture is the prime determinant. (The average number of pupils in a typical high-school class in Japan is much larger than the number in California.)
2. Massive importation of foreign engineers is vital to being competitive in engineering. (Japanese companies, which typically hire only native-born Japanese, hold the majority of patents in LCD displays.)
3. A military solution can transform a backward, ignorant society into a 1st-world society. (The Japanese military transformed Taiwan into a modern society. Under Japanese colonial rule, attendance in public school up to the 6th grade was mandatory; many Taiwanese eventually obtained postsecondary degrees from elite Japanese universities. The military solution was possible in Iraq; the Americans failed because they refused to enact a military draft supplying the 400,000 troops needed for a long-term military occupation and colonial rule.)
You may be shocked by point 3, but I challenge you to study the history of Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule. If the Chinese army under Dictator Chiang-kai Shek had not seized Taiwan in the late 1940s and destroyed much of what the Japanese -- with cooperation from the Taiwanese -- had built, then Taiwan would have been the post-war economic and hi-tech superpower of the Pacific long before the Japanese economic titan appeared in the 1970s.
cheers,
A. Tapir.
Man! Those are some heavy pillows!
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
This is great and all, but surely there are other nerd worthy things going on in Japan besides robo muscle suits?
That student really could not hold 110lbs of rice?
REALLY?
I'm calling shenanigans
Considering this 'new' suit is just an old suit with the arms removed doesn't really qualify as an advancement.
I would even consider the loss of capability combined with no additional advantages a setback rather than advancement.
By their logic, If I took a 3 year old computer, removed the second drive and cut the memory in half, that would be a new computer with the advantages of lower cost and weight...
Sorry, but removing the arms from a power suit just degrades it's support & enhancement capabilities way too much. That student needs to go back to class.
This invention may someday prove to be useful for killing Sarah Connor.
"a wearable robotic suit that assists the muscles when carrying out strenuous tasks" So while it can help people with weak or disabled muscles regain more of their strength (if not now, then in the future), it might also be great for heavy labour like hauling things. I think a lot of companies would pay to have this as part of a regular work uniform like hard hats and boots, if only to duck the insurance claims.
Karma fed to this user will be promptly burnt. Be warned; be wary.
Everything Japanese is better when it is the "From Space" version. Maybe they will add some guns or wings to it by then.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
I mean, what's the point in getting more than the right arm of this pneumatic goodness?
good job.
God's gift to chicks
...we will be assimilated without resistance.
I hate being bipolar; it's awesome!
I wouldn't want to be lifting something heavy if one of those suits broke and dumped the entire weight of the load on me.
"I wouldn't want to be lifting something heavy if one of those suits broke and dumped the entire weight of the load on me."
Same is true of any machine, so what's new? I wouldn't want to be under my auto if the jack holding it up broke, or lifting bags of cement with a JCB if that broke. Not sure of your point beyond "machines need to be tested and proved to be safe before being sold to people"?
Anyone who has ever done manual handling course will know that you aren't supposed to use you back to lift things. You should squat with your back straight and use the leg muscles to do the work. This machine may reduce the load on the back but the picture clearly show the guy bending over in what would normally be considered an "unsafe lifting" position.
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Because the Old Robotic Muscle Suit we've been using all this time just isn't good enough anymore.
There is no "safe" lifting position. Even if you squat and lift, your lower back takes most of the load, just as in the case of bend and lift. The only difference is your leg muscles are more likely to be well developed than you back muscles; the damage you may cause yourself is about the same.
I sure hope this guy doesn't work for Genom!