For those who wish to do battle with the character featured in the upcoming movie from Marvel Studios, "Iron Man," exoskeleton fans need look no further than the HAL-5.
Japan's HAL exoskeleton is not only an impressive suit of armor, it will soon go into production for sale. Cyberdyne Inc. will produce 500 HAL suits each year, starting in October of 2008.
The 15-kilogram battery-powered suit detects muscle movements through electrical signal flows on the skin surface. These currents are picked up by the sensors and sent to the computer, which translates the nerve signals into signals of its own for controlling electric motors at the hips and knees of the exoskeleton, effectively amplifying muscle strength. HAL stands for "hybrid assistive limb"; HAL-5 is the latest version of the suit.
Not yet ready for production and sale is the Sarcos XOS exoskeleton. The suit allows the user to endlessly pull weight; two hundred-pound pulldowns are easy. The user of the suit feels only about 10 of those 200 pounds.
Picking up and moving 70 pound cannisters is just as easy. How does it work? The machine follows the movements of the user, sampling the user's behavior thousands of times per second. A built-in computer performs the monitoring, and amplifies the user's strength with the robotic exoskeleton.
Source: Xinhua/agenciesAuthor：Entertainment Time：2008-05-24 From：china daily
