Robotic Exoskeletons Could Help Nuclear Plant Workers

Posted by samzenpus on Monday June 2, 2014 @08:21AM from the power-up dept.

itwbennett (1594911) writes "ActiveLink, which is 80% owned by Panasonic, is building heavy-duty strength-boosting suits that the company says can help workers shoulder the burden of heavy gear and protective clothing and could be useful at nuclear plants. 'Our powered suits could be used to assist and support remote-controlled robots in emergencies,' ActiveLink President Hiromichi Fujimoto said in an interview. 'Workers could wear the suits to carry PackBots to their deployment point and to work in low-radiation areas.'"

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Re:If your gear is heavy enough to necessitate rob by i+kan+reed · 2014-06-02 08:31 · Score: 3, Insightful

If your work is delicate or uncertain enough to require human intervention, just use humans. Oh wait, we can't, because we'll die.
Not really needed by Mr+D+from+63 · 2014-06-02 08:38 · Score: 3, Insightful

Nuclear plant workers get very little exposure to start with. There are robotics used for underwater tasks. So there really is not a nuclear power market for such things. There could be some cleanup tasks from old government defense waste sites, but tool as described are very niche use items.