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The Rise Of The Body Bots
Tsukuba, Japan (SPX) Sep 23, 2005 Today, in Japan and the United States, engineers are finally putting some practical exoskeletons through their paces outside of laboratories. According to an article in the October issue of IEEE Spectrum, the very first commercially available exoskeleton, scheduled to hit the market in Japan in November, is designed to help elderly and disabled people walk and carry things. Built by Cyberdyne in Tsukuba, Japan, the exoskeleton, called HAL-5, will cost about 1.5 million yen (around US $13 800). Meanwhile, in the United States, the most advanced exoskeleton projects are at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Sarcos Research Corp., in Salt Lake City. Both are funded under a $40 million, five-year program begun by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2001. According to the Spectrum article, during the past several months each group has been field-testing a second-generation exoskeleton that is a huge improvement over its predecessor. At long last, exoskeletons, once the stuff of science fiction, are on the verge of proving themselves in military and civilian applications. This new generation of anthropomorphic, untethered, and self-powered exoskeletons is marrying humans' decision-making capabilities wwith machines' dexterity and brute force. They've got the brains to control the brawn. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express All about the robots on Earth and beyond!
Spider Robots And The Space Web
Noordwijk, The Netherlands (SPX) Dec 13, 2005Robotic 'spiders' could be the key to building large-scale structures in space, according to ESA's Advanced Concepts Team. The tiny mechanical spiders would inch their way across large nets of fabric in space performing small tasks or lining up to create an antenna or some other structure. |
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