"건담과 같은 국방용 로봇을 개발하겠다. - 직설적으로 건담을 만들겠다 -"
다들 무슨 이벤트인가 싶어서 의아해 했을것이다.
만우절도 아니고...국방장관이 건담 오타쿠 인건가?
아니면 장관 아들이 졸라서?
여하튼 그건 루머가 아닌 사실이었다.
이런.. 합성사진이 나돌기도 했다.
건담의 디테일에 조금만 더 신경을 썼다면 정말 진짜일까 의심하게까지 만드는 이 한장의 사진.
실제 일본의 지하비밀연구소 안에서 이런 작업이 진행중인지도 모르겠지.
물론 껍데기야 누가 못만들겠냐만은~
일본의 국방에는 역시 건담이 필요한 것인가.
일본 방위성이 건담을 만드는 것을 검토하고 있는 모양이다. 본 자료는 11월 7일부터 2일간에 걸쳐 방위성 기술 연구 본부가 실시하는 <헤세이 19년도(2007년도) 연구 발표회 '방위 기술 심포지엄 2007'>에 실제로 실려 있던 것. 기즈모도 재팬(www.gizmodo.jp)이 전했다.
제대로 <건담의 실현을 향해서>라고 써 있다.
<건담의 실현을 향해서>의 뒤로 선진 개인 장비 시스템도 있다. 거대 로보트 보다는 오히려 스파이더 맨 2의 옥타비아누스와 같은 파워드 슈츠일 것으로 추측된다고 기즈모도 재팬은 희색 만연.
역시 만화를 너무 많이 본 모양이다.
사실상 현재로써 불가능한 일임을 시인하고 건담형파워슈츠로 개발을 돌린듯 하다.
(파워슈츠는 왠지 가능할듯.)
오른쪽 사진의 저런 파워슈츠??
실제 파워슈츠가 만들어진다면 저 청년에게 바로 테스트를 해주야 할것같군.
눈빛이 살아있어.
단순히 박스에 건담이라고 휘갈겨썼을뿐인데도...카리스마가 넘치고 있다.
- 이런 농담일랑 집어치우고... 발표후 1년이 지난 지금 개발진행 상황은 얼마나 됐는지 궁금해졌다.
<건담의 원형이 되는 [선진 장비 시스템].
진짜로의 진화가 몹시 기다려진다. (방위성 기술 연구 본부 제공)
▶방위성이 건담 개발중.
최근, 인터넷상에서 방위성의 건담 개발이 화제를 부르고 있다.
발단은 방위성 기술 연구 본부가 7, 8일에
도쿄 신쥬쿠구의 호텔 그란힐 이치가야에서 개최할 예정인
[헤세이 19년도 연구 발표회, 방위 기술 심포지엄]의
안내를 웹상에 발표했을 때, 전시 세션의 하나인 [육상 장비]의 항목에서
[건담의 실현을 향해(선진 개인 장비 시스템)]이라고 명기한 것이었다.
애니메이션 작품인 [기동 전사 건담]에 등장하는 로보트로서,
확고한 인기를 얻은 건담이기에 웹상에서는 금새
[방위성이 건담을 개발한다]라는 정보가 퍼졌다.
2ch에서는 20개 이상의 스레드가 개설되고, 다른 게시판이나
블로그에도 관련 글이 올려질 만큼 건담 팬들의 뜨거운 논의가 전개되었다.
"마침내 때가 왔다. 건담이 육상 장비의 하나로서 실현될지도...",
"방위성은 어디까지가 진심인가?",
"일본에서 국방을 하려면 건담이 필요하다..."
웹상의 프리 백과사전인 [위키페디아]의 [건담] 항목에는 이미
'방위성이 계획하고 있는 선진 개인 장비 시스템'이라고 기입되어 있다.
한편, 기술 연구 본부는 '엄청난 관심에 약간 당황스럽다.
자위대원의 IT화를 위한 비공개 연구로, 일부 연구자들 사이에서
이미 몇년전부터 건담이라 부르고 있었으므로,
그대로 표기한 것이다.'라고 이야기했다.
건담이라 불리는 이 선진 개인 장비 시스템은 육상 전투때,
대원이 착용하는 방탄 조끼나 헬멧 등의 장비이며,
헬멧에 내장된 디스플레이에는 다른 장소의 상황 영상이나
GPS에 의한 위치 정보, 신체 상황 모니터 등이 사용자에게 비춰진다.
심포지엄 당일에 행사장에는 3세트의 [건담]이 준비될 예정으로,
마네킹, 인간이 착용하는 것 외에 나머지 1세트는
심포지엄 참석자가 실제로 시착(試着)하는 것도 가능하다고 한다.
"어떤 분이라도 자유롭게 와서 보셨으면 좋겠다."
건담 팬의 입장도 환영하고 있다.
출처 - 루리웹
건담의 실현은 불가능하다는 여론에 부랴부랴 발표한 모델이 바로 이것...
건담=모빌슈츠=인간형슈츠=저거??
그렇다..저것이 일본 국방성에서 말하는 건담인 것이다.
기왕이면 흰색으로 만들어줘...
그러다가 최근 나온 기사를 보고
"저것이 소문의 그 하얀녀석인가?"
하고 되뇌였다.
일본에서 개발한 파워슈트.
장애인에게 사용해도 좋을듯하고..
공사현장등..사용용도가 정말 많을것같다.
게다가 흰색.
왠지 이것이 건담의 정체라고 생각이 되기까지 했다.
아래의 더보기를 클릭하면 영어원문의 기사내용과 사진들을 감상할수 있을 것이다.
포스팅이 너무 길어져서 더보기로 숨겨버릴수 밖에 없었다.
일본의 사이버다인사 홈페이지에서
HAL(Hybrid Assistive Limb)
HAL-5스펙표
사이즈 : 인체 장착형 높이1,600mm
중량 : 전신 일체형 약23kg, 하반신형약15kg
동력(전기) : 충전용100V 배터리 구동
가동 가능 시간 : 약2시간40분 (배터리 교환으로 연속 사용가능)
동작 : 첫 시작·앉아, 보행, 계단 승강, 파워 스쿼트, 중량물 보관 유지·운반 등.
조작 : 장착자가 조작, 오퍼레이터가 조작.
사용 환경 : 옥내외 일상생활 환경
사이즈 : 인체 장착형 높이1,600mm
중량 : 전신 일체형 약23kg, 하반신형약15kg
동력(전기) : 충전용100V 배터리 구동
가동 가능 시간 : 약2시간40분 (배터리 교환으로 연속 사용가능)
동작 : 첫 시작·앉아, 보행, 계단 승강, 파워 스쿼트, 중량물 보관 유지·운반 등.
조작 : 장착자가 조작, 오퍼레이터가 조작.
사용 환경 : 옥내외 일상생활 환경
HAL의 FAQ
Q:어떻게 하면HAL(을)를 이용할 수 있습니까.
A:올해(2008해)10달 이후, 판매 총대리점인 야마토 하우스 공업(주)를 통해서 복지 개호 기기로 시설을 대상으로 리스·렌탈 판매를 개시하겠습니다.
개인 고객은, 시설을 통해서 서비스 제공을 받아 주게 됩니다.
Q:HAL의 비용에 대해 가르쳐 주세요.
A:HAL의 구체적인 리스·렌탈 요금에 대해서는, 올해 10월까지 총대리점 야마토 하우스 공업(주)에서 발표될 예정입니다.
Q:어떠한 신체장애의 케이스의 경우,HAL하지만 적용할 수 있습니까?
A:사람마다 적용이 다르기 때문에, 이야기를 들은 후 설명해드리고 있습니다.
Q:어느 정도의 파워 어시스트가 있습니까.
A:일례로서 레그 프레스로100kg하지만 한계였던 사람이180kg까지 들어 올릴 수 있거나40kg의 무게의 짐에서도 수kg정도의 감각으로 계속 가지거나 할 수 있습니다.
Q:HAL을 장착해 무겁지는 없습니까.
A:HAL은, 장착자가HAL에 탑승하는 구조여서, HAL자체가 중량을 지지하고 있으므로, 장착자가 무겁게 느낄 것은 없습니다.
Q:HAL을 장착한 채로 화장실에 갈 수 있습니까.
A:의복 위로부터 장착해 주시는 구조가 되어 있기 때문에, 현재 상태로서는 어렵습니다만, 연구를 거듭해서 가능한 한 희망에 따를 수 있도록 현재 연구 개발을 진행하고 있습니다.
Q:HAL을 장착한 채로 외출할 수 있습니까.
A:현재 상태로서는, 안전의 확보를 우선해, 실내에서 이용하시도록 부탁을 하고 있습니다.그러나, 연구의 결과, 배터리의 지속 시간, 대후성등(?)에 대하고 향상이 되고 있으므로, 가까운 장래에는 옥외에서의 이용도 가능해집니다.
Q:10달 이후, 어떠한 형태의HAL하지만, 상품화되는 것입니까?
A:지금은 아래와 같은 모델을 시장에 내서 갑니다.
·양각형
·단각(좌/우)형
Q:노동·중작업 전용의HAL(은)는 언제 정도로부터 출시되는 것입니까?
A:현재는 복지 개호 전용의HAL의 출하를 우선합니다만, 차례차례, 노동·중작업 전용HAL에도 주력 해 갈 예정입니다
By Erico Guizzo and Harry Goldstein
Science-fiction fans have long become accustomed to the idea of steely commandos clad in robotic exoskeletons taking on huge, vicious, extraterrestrial beasts, shadowy evil cyborgs, or even each other. Supersoldiers encased in sleek, self-powered armor figure memorably in such works as Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel Starship Troopers, Joe W. Haldeman's 1975 The Forever War, and many other books and movies. In 1999's A Good Old-Fashioned Future, for example, Bruce Sterling writes of a soldier dying after crashing in his "power-armor, a leaping, brick-busting, lightning-spewing exoskeleton."
Today, in Japan and the United States, engineers are finally putting some practical exoskeletons through their paces outside of laboratories. But don't look for these remarkable new systems to bust bricks or spew lightning. The very first commercially available exoskeleton, scheduled to hit the market in Japan next month, is designed to help elderly and disabled people walk, climb stairs, and carry things around. Built by Cyberdyne Inc., in Tsukuba, Japan, this 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 $50 million, five-year program begun by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, in 2001. During the past several months, each group has been working on a second-generation exoskeleton that is a huge improvement over its predecessor. Little information about the new models had been officially released by press time, but IEEE Spectrum has learned that the Berkeley unit was successfully tested in a park near the campus this past summer and the latest Sarcos model was demonstrated to a panel of military observers at Fort Belvoir, Va., last April.
HAL-5, in Japan, and the systems by Berkeley and Sarcos, in the United States, appear to be the first of a platoon of considerably more capable exoskeletons aimed at real-world uses that may soon, quite literally, be walking near you [see tables of exoskeleton projects "Projects in the United States", "
" and "
" Most of these systems are designed to help physically weak or injured people gain more mobility or perform rehabilitation exercises. But researchers are quick to mention other commercial possibilities for their creations: rescue and emergency personnel could use them to reach over debris-strewn or rugged terrain that no wheeled vehicle could negotiate; firefighters could carry heavy gear into burning buildings and injured people out of them; and furniture movers, construction workers, and warehouse attendants could lift and carry heavier objects safely.
At long last, exoskeletons, the stuff of science fiction, are on the verge of proving themselves in military and civilian applications. Strap-on robotic controls for the arms and hands—used to remotely operate manipulators that handle nuclear material, for example—have been around for quite a while. But the new anthropomorphic, untethered, and self-powered exoskeletons now strutting out of labs aren't just a bunch of wearable joysticks. They marry humans' decision-making capabilities with machines' dexterity and brute force. They've got the brains to control the brawn.
Biologically speaking, an exoskeleton is the hard outer structure of an insect or crustacean that provides support or protection. But in military research labs, popular fiction, and movies, the term has come to mean a "supersuit," a system that can greatly augment a person's physical abilities.
Now, if exoskeletons are so attractive, why aren't ports, construction sites, and warehouses—not to mention war zones and nursing homes—teeming with them? The reason is that the basic technologies haven't been available. Indeed, all attempts to build exoskeletons in the United States failed until recently. At General Electric's facilities in Schenectady, N.Y., in the 1960s, engineers built a two-armed, bipedal exoskeletal machine dubbed Hardiman, but they could only get one arm to work. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico, in the mid-1980s, scientists envisaged the Pitman suit, a full-body exoskeleton for the infantryman, but it stayed on the drawing board. And at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Maryland, in the early 1990s, researchers planned to build a suit that bore some resemblance to the comic-book hero Iron Man; the project never went forward.
These efforts ran into fundamental technological limitations. Computers weren't fast enough to process the control functions necessary to make the suits respond smoothly and effectively to the wearer's movements. Energy supplies weren't compact and light enough to be easily portable. And actuators, which are the electromechanical muscles of an exoskeleton, were too sluggish, heavy, and bulky. "Exoskeletons were always thought of as—you just can't do it," says John A. Main, manager of DARPA's Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation program and a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington.
But now, he adds, "DARPA is taking the technological excuse off the table." The goal of the DARPA program was to show that it was possible to build a specific kind of exoskeleton: a wearable robotic system to help soldiers carry heavier loads—possibly double the 50 kilograms an unaided soldier is expected to be able to carry—and march faster and longer. It was important to DARPA that the strength not come at the expense of agility: while wearing an exoskeleton, soldiers would still have to be able to crawl under barbed wire, hide in trenches, and go over steep obstacles. But with the suits, they could also carry more weapons, armor, and supplies, as well as go places not accessible to trucks or even tanks.
Main says the new systems by Berkeley and Sarcos showed that it was possible to meet DARPA's requirements. The two teams, he adds, will now have the chance to collaborate with Army research groups to transform their prototypes into real military tools, which could be in field trials within five years.
That's not to say the civilian applications aren't already tantalizing U.S. and Japanese researchers. There are no reliable projections of the commercial potential for exoskeletons, but a 2004 study by the International Federation of Robotics and the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe estimated that accumulated sales of service robots from 2004 to 2007 could reach nearly $10 billion. Service robots, unlike industrial robots used in factories, are designed to interact with people and help them accomplish certain tasks. They include vacuum-cleaning bots, entertainment humanoids, bomb-disarming rovers, and other systems, which soon may well include exoskeletons.
Japan, with almost half the world's nearly 1 million industrial robots, is likely to be the place where adoption of exoskeletons will first take hold. The country's rapidly aging population—one in four Japanese will be 65 or older by 2015—and its ambivalence toward admitting foreign laborers have created a shortage of caregivers, and some believe robotic-aided nursing care could be the solution.
Over the last couple of years, Japanese companies have demonstrated a number of exoskeleton-type systems for a variety of applications, some serious, some almost whimsical. For instance, Toyota Motor Corp.'s 200-kg i-foot, which looks like a futuristic chair supported by a pair of legs, walks and climbs stairs, but the wearer has to weigh less than 60 kg. The 3.5-meter-high, two-armed bulldozerlike Enryu, from the small robotics company Tmsuk Co., was built to rescue people from burning or collapsed buildings. More fanciful than functional, the 3.4-meter-high, 1000-kg Land Walker, from Sakakibara Kikai Co., shuffles about at 0.4 meter per second and shoots rubber balls from guns mounted on either side.
But those machines aren't true exoskeletons. They carry passengers inside enclosed structures and don't map directly onto a person's anatomy. In other words, they aren't the kind of thing you would expect to see in a nursing home helping the elderly get around.
The development of a truly wearable anthropomorphic exoskeleton was the goal of Yoshiyuki Sankai when 10 years ago he started working on HAL, the Japanese system that will be available in November. Sankai, a professor at the University of Tsukuba, 60 km northeast of Tokyo, says HAL (short for Hybrid Assistive Limb) is a full-body suit designed to aid people who have degenerated muscles or those paralyzed by brain or spinal injuries. HAL-5, the system's fifth generation, made its debut this past June at the 2005 World Expo, held in Aichi, in western Japan.
HAL-5's structure consists of a frame made of nickel molybdenum and extra-super-duralumin, an aluminum alloy used in the wings of Japan's famous World War II Zero fighter planes. Further strengthened by plastic casing, the metal frame is strapped to the body and supports the wearer externally, its several electric motors acting as the suit's muscles to provide powered assistance to the wearer's limbs [see photo, "
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BIONIC BODY: A powered robotic suit designed to help ederly and disabled people walk and carry things. HAL-5 will be available in Japan in November.
"
This newest model improves on earlier versions of the exoskeleton in several ways. Previous prototypes helped ailing humans to stand up, walk, climb stairs, and perform a range of other leg movements—one user was able to leg-press 180 kg (almost 400 pounds)! HAL-5 goes a step further by incorporating an additional upper- body system that helps users lift up to 40 kg more than they normally could. Wearing the suit, a healthy adult male can lift 80 kg, roughly double his typical 30- to 40-kg capability.
"But a human would quickly become tired holding a heavy load," Sankai points out. "This machine can continue holding a heavy weight for 5 or 10 minutes, no problem," he adds, speaking from his office at Cyberdyne, which he set up as a venture company on the Tsukuba campus to commercialize the suit.
Another major improvement is the elimination of the bulky backpack used in HAL-3, which contained the Linux-based control computer and a Wi-Fi communications system. Those components were shrunk to fit into a small pouch that is now attached to the belt. The suit is powered by both nickel-metal hydride and lithium battery packs. Currently, a full charge lasts for 2 hours and 40 minutes, with both the upper- and lower-body parts in action. HAL-5 weighs about 21 kg, but Sankai says wearers don't notice the suit's weight, because it supports itself.
The exoskeleton has also undergone a major face-lift. It now incorporates smaller dc motor actuators, which are positioned at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees. This improvement, along with the addition of the plastic casing that covers and strengthens the frame, means the new suit has shed the knobby, bare-bones look that characterized HAL-3 in favor of a sleek appearance resembling outfits seen on "Star Trek."
Sankai and his team developed two control systems that work together to command HAL-5's limbs. The first one, the bio-cybernic system (a term coined by Sankai), monitors electric currents known as electromyogram, or EMG, signals on the wearer's body. These signals flow along muscle fibers when a person intends to move. Coin-size sensors attached to the wearer's skin near the shoulders, hips, knees, and elbows pick up the signals and feed them to the control computer, which then triggers the actuators to put the robotic arms and legs into action.
The job of the second control system is to let the wearer and suit move together more smoothly. It stores walking patterns—generated the first time the person tries out the suit—that are used to keep the suit's limbs always in sync with those of the wearer. This system can be fine-tuned so the exoskeleton matches each wearer's distinct gait, which is especially important if, say, the person has one leg less capable than the other. It also allows certain disabled people, whose EMG signals aren't detectable, to use the suit. "If the user has trouble in the spinal cord or in the brain, we can't use the bioelectric signals," Sankai says. "In this case, the robotic autonomous control system activates itself automatically once the user starts moving."
Sankai now spends time every Saturday in his lab at Tsukuba fitting patients with the first commercial versions of the suit. He says it takes two months to calibrate the control systems so that they work optimally for each individual. He is also receiving requests from hospitals and rehabilitation centers. "By the end of November, I expect we can provide 10 or 12 sets," he says. Though the suits can be bought outright, he would rather lease them "because the technology is always improving, and then we can exchange them for newer versions." The yearly leasing price, he says, will be set between 300 000 and 400 000 yen (about $2750 and $3670).
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, a research group from the University of California, Berkeley, is hard at work testing the capabilities of its own advanced exoskeleton. In fact, a few months ago, team members chose the heavily wooded trails of Tilden Park, just north of the Berkeley campus, to try out their latest creation. They were there a few times this past summer to field-test a new generation of the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton—Bleex for short.
The group has been working on the machine, Bleex 2, and its predecessor, Bleex 1, for the past five years. Bleex 1 was unveiled early in 2004, and so far the Berkeley team hasn't officially released much information about the sleeker, stronger Bleex 2. But some details made available to Spectrum confirm that the new system is a significant improvement over the older unit. Bleex 2, like its predecessor, has two electromechanical legs that strap to the outside of the wearer's legs. At waist level, the robotic legs connect to a backpacklike frame. Mount any type of heavy load on that frame and Bleex will carry the bulk of the weight for you. There are no joysticks or other manual controls. You can walk, run, squat, twist, kneel—even dance, if you like—and the exoskeleton will command its powered legs to follow your moves.
But while Bleex 1 was relatively large and bulky—each of its robotic legs a tangle of hydraulic actuators and electronic modules encased in plastic covers—Bleex 2 is compact and light, weighing one-third as much, only 14 kg. The new design reveals that the Berkeley team has successfully miniaturized most of the machine's components. Basically, the new legs consist of elongated metal tubes, not much thicker than hockey sticks, that now encapsulate most actuators and electronic circuitry. Photos of Bleex 2 made available to Spectrum (but not approved for publication at press time) reveal no exposed cables, circuits, or protective plastic covers.
There are also improvements to the way the exoskeleton powers its robotic legs, although details were not forthcoming. Bleex 1 relied on hydraulic actuators, which received high-pressure fluid from a pump coupled to a small gasoline engine. The actuators are essentially cylinders with sliding shafts that move to produce the desired torque at each of the joints in the mechanical legs. With this system, the wearer could walk with Bleex 1 at nearly 2 meters per second while hauling 34 kg. Bleex 2, it seems, also relies on hydraulic actuators. But researchers declined to say whether the power source is still an internal-combustion engine or something else, such as a battery-powered system.
Nevertheless, Spectrum has learned that a person wearing Bleex 2 can run at speeds exceeding 2 meters per second while carrying a payload of 45 kg. That revelation alone is an indication that the Berkeley team has built a very agile exoskeleton. It's a machine that has been on some rough rides at Tilden Park, according to a member of the Berkeley team. So far, they've used it to sprint along uneven gravel paths and march up and down steep hills, with the wearer carrying a load strapped to the backpack part of the frame.
For its part, the Salt Lake City–based Sarcos team, led by roboticist and inventor Stephen C. Jacobsen, has been working on what may be one of the strongest exoskeletons ever built. Earlier this year, at the demonstration the group did in Fort Belvoir, an engineer wearing the Sarcos robotic system was able to carry 84 kg—about the weight of an average size washing machine—without feeling the payload at all. Jacobsen, Sarcos's CEO and a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Utah, says that the new exoskeleton supports the payload's entire weight even if the wearer stands on one leg.
Like Bleex 2, the latest Sarcos system is a second-generation model that improves substantially over its predecessor. Jacobsen says that while wearing the exoskeleton, you can walk and run, and if you stumble, the system is fast enough to readjust its powered limbs to keep the payload's weight off your body.
The exoskeleton relies on a network of force sensors that are in touch with the wearer's body at certain points, such as underneath the feet. These special sensors, developed by Sarcos, feed data to a control computer that in turn commands the robotic limbs to move in harmony with the wearer's arms and legs without ever obstructing them. Jacobsen calls this method "get out of the way" control, and he says using the robotic suit requires no training. "You can step into the exoskeleton, and you can immediately run it," he says.
According to Jacobsen, what makes an exoskeleton an extremely hard problem is that conventional, off-the-shelf components won't work. Sarcos had to design and fabricate each piece and, in parallel, integrate all of them into its system. The exoskeleton's power unit was one of these many pieces the company had to engineer painstakingly. It's a special internal-combustion engine that can use a variety of fuels and deliver enough hydraulic power to the actuators to meet the great strength and speed the robotic limbs require.
But even more challenging, Jacobsen says, was developing yet another component: the servo valves that control the flow of the hydraulic fluid into the actuators. The valves had to be small, extremely reliable, resistant to high pressures, and highly efficient to preserve precious power, not to mention that some of their parts had to be machined to micrometer tolerances. To make things even harder, so many complex physical processes occur in the valves, Jacobsen insists that simulation software couldn't help in the design. His group, therefore, had to go through several iterations of prototypes to get the valve it needed.
Sarcos is now preparing for demonstrations scheduled over the next few months. Team members are especially busy with the exoskeleton's upper-extremity system, which will add strength to the wearer's arms. A person wearing the full-body system will be able not only to carry a payload on a backpack but also lift heavy items, a capability that is particularly useful for logistics operations such as loading and unloading cargo vehicles and moving things in a warehouse.
These advances make it possible to envision a future in which exoskeletons are part of our daily lives. Perhaps someday they'll help you heft an 80-kg washing machine around the laundry room all by yourself. Or maybe you'll be entertained by the spectacle of competitors using them in new, tech-based extreme sports. How about a transcontinental marathon that really tests the racers' "metal"?
It might sound preposterous, but enthusiastic amateur exoskeleton makers are already competing in an annual exoskeleton-enabled weight-lifting competition called the Tetsujin Challenge, sponsored by the do-it-yourself robotics monthly Servo Magazine. And in a class by itself is the 5.5-meter-high contraption designed by Carlos Owens [see sidebar, "Mecha: It's Mega"
You're not likely to see exoskeletons battling extraterrestrial monsters anytime soon. But before long, it might not even occur to you to gawk at the sight of a person strapped to an exoskeleton bringing home the groceries or going for a stroll in the park.
With additional reporting by Jean Kumagai in New York City and John Boyd in Yokohama, Japan.
To Probe Further
For a photo gallery of many other exoskeletons and wearable robotic systems, visit Exoskeletons Around the World.
For exoskeleton-related discussions and demonstrations,see the IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, to be held in Hatfield, England, from 6 to 8 September 2006 (http://www.ro-man.org/) and the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, to be held in Beijing from 9 to 14 October 2006 (http://www.iros2006.org).
For more on Japanese exoskeleton projects, see the August 2005 issue of Advanced Robotics (http://www.rsj.or.jp/AR/) and the October 2004 issue of Journal of Robotics and Mechatronics (http://www.fujipress.jp/JRM).
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(Left) Sarcos powered robotic legs; (right) University of Washington Full-Arm Exoskeleton.
By LEFT: SARCOS/DARPA; RIGHT: JACOB ROSEN/UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON |
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Mecha: It's Mega
ByIt's big. It's bad. And, unfortunately, at the moment, it barely moves. The colossal, 5.5-meter-high, 1360-kilogram Mecha exoskeleton sits in Carlos Owens's backyard in Wasilla, Alaska, its legs locked into position to prevent the hydraulic fluid that helps move the monster's limbs from losing all pressure.
Powered by an 18-horsepower (13.4-kilowatt) Briggs & Stratton engine, Mecha cost Owens US $25 000 and took about a year and a half to build. This past May, Owens climbed into the pilot seat and took Mecha for its first walk: half a dozen steps, each measuring about 20 centimeters.
According to Owens, Mecha's limbs mimic the pilot's movements using joystick controls that track arm and leg position. Such a system gives the pilot the "illusion of being in a suit of armor rather than on a bipedal vehicle," he says.
An ironworker who spent time in the U.S. Army Reserve, Owens is convinced that what he calls an "enclosure exoskeleton" is a safer, more practical choice for the battlefield than either of the exoskeletons being developed for DARPA. He scoffs at the tens of millions DARPA has spent so far and believes that for that amount of money the military should at least get something that will not only help transport a soldier in a war zone but also protect him.
PHOTO: NEOGENTRONYX |
Owens showcases his prototype Mecha athttp://www.neogentronyx.com and on eBay ($40 000 plus $6000 shipping, with no takers at press time), but he hasn't showed it off in a public test-drive. Walking in this first version of Mecha is very awkward, he admits, and it's too big to be easily transported to a place where he could demonstrate it.
Mecha is certainly in no shape to take on the do-it-yourself exoskeletons in the annual weight-lifting competition sponsored by Servo Magazine, called the Tetsujin [Japanese for "iron person"] Challenge. But with time and money, Owens believes, he could improve Mecha as a prototype for machines that eventually will help people fight wars, put out forest fires, and construct buildings.
—H.G.
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