The Rise Of The Body Bots

ROBO SPACE

Exoskeletons are strutting out of labs - and they are carrying their creators with them. HAL 5 demonstration.

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.

ROBO SPACE

Foster-Miller Awarded $96 Million Contract For Additional TALON Robots

Waltham MA (SPX) Sep 20, 2005
Foster-Miller has announced that it has received its largest US military order to date for ground robots. The multi-year contract increased from $27.5 million for 250 robots to $124 million for up to 1200 TALON Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robots.

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