Social Good Engineering Magazine: GineersNow Social Innovation GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 001 | Page 92

ROBOTICS
Photo Source: IB Times
EXOSKELETONS
To Begin Iron Man Age
A
Photo Source: Discovery
Japan develops Exoskeletons, robotic
assist suits, to aid the elderly and to
support its work force.
ctiveLink, a Japanese
tech company and
subsidiary of Panaso-
nic, released its first
commercially available
assist suit AWN-03, an
exoskeleton that detects and
assists body movements. It
has been showcased in Tokyo’s
International Robot Exhibition,
the world’s largest robotics
show, a few weeks ago where it
garnered a huge interest from
the audience.

This is to address
the aging population of Japan
and supporting its shrinking
workforce focusing on health
care, physical assistance and
maintaining the country’s
level of production. Using the
exoskeleton, which weighs a few
pounds (6kg), the user would
be able to lift up crates or things
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effortlessly, six to seven times in
a row. The device is composed
of two disks on the front part of
thighs and distributed over the
shoulders. It is powered by lith-
ium-ion battery with an electric
engine according to ActiveLink
Engineer, Yasunori Nishi. The
exoskeleton costs $10,000 each.

Also, Japan is not
the only one developing the
exoskeletons. In Europe and
the United States, a number of
projects were soon be unveiled
under the sectors of defense
and rehabilitation industries.
Exoskeletons ranging from
modular arms, limbs and chairs
are now being developed for
commercialization.In this tech-
nological age of robotics, from
parts to overalls, these “Iron
Man suits” are now a reality.