Hal-5 robotic suit
 

I've posted on this suit in the past. Here's a video of it on You Tube. Brainhell posted it on his blog today. (It helps if you're fluent in Japanese).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6nX5q3gVUM

cool john thanks:)

Ineresting idea,...but I think it primarily being marketed for economic production..increasing workloads of healthy individuals..

One day..hopefully an idea such as this may help those with disabilities...but one thing I see that may present a problem is balance..the guy in the video seemed to walk kind of akward. to me ...and he was healthy..but maybe it could be developed further for more practical adaptations for the disabled one day...Lisa

Actually the engineer behind the suit developed it exactly for people like us:

"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 2005. 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."
http://staging.spectrum.ieee.org/oct05/1901/2

Neat John....how does the guy balance though?... he looked strong but awkward...I don't know about the rest of you guys but Gary experienced a feeling of lack of cordination before he noticed strenth loss..stumbling, tripping..etc..I am just curious how it works...( I watched the video clip and read some of the English translation but some of it I guess I did not understand)
Hopefully technology like this one day could replace wheelchairs...Lisa

Lisa, I don't know how the balancing works. I did see some video of some of the early suits and the wearers were falling down a lot so somehow they have solved it. I know what you mean about balance problems preceding strength problems - I had the same - but I suspect that the balance problems stem from small muscle weakness that has more affect on balance early on than does major muscle weakness; this is only my hypothesis. Last spring, my physio couldn't understand why I couldn't walk when she tested the pushing strength in my legs but then realized the problem when she determined my adductor muscles were very weak. I believe these provide lateral support but you probably know all about this anyway.

Here's an update on the status of the suits. They sound at least a year behind their predictions of last year when they told me they expected to have widespread availability in Japan in 2006 and in Europe in 2007.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/29/h...ss-production/

I read it as they have used a human form to build an exoskeleton that works as a self contained unit to hold the body in place and is directed by outside force.

sounds good but is it right?