Robots quickly changed the unit plants worldwide, as they are efficient, reliable, and do not require salaries and social benefits. But some operations are still not available to robots, and Panasonic proposes to strengthen human exoskeletons rather than replace them with machines.
The exoskeleton has been developed ActiveLink, a subsidiary of Panasonic, and its main purpose – to help the employee to raise significantly more weight, without affecting the coordination of movements and mechanics. And ActiveLink managed to achieve this. Powerloader exoskeleton weighs just 6 kg, but allows the owner to pick up an additional 15 kg load.
Here’s a video of the prototype Powerloader, dated January 2013:
In April 2014, this became cumbersome structure looks like this:
The Panasonic believe that the strengthening of working in this way will become more popular in the coming years, as the test stores in Osaka, Japan, has shown positive results. The exoskeleton also tested for forestry work in Japan, and a more powerful version, which will be able to raise about 100 additional kilos, is already in development.
Like most new technologies, these exoskeletons are quite expensive and their use is limited to large production and the military sector. We have already seen the costumes, make good shots of soldiers or strong men, but in the end, the technology must reduce the cost and spread to other areas. Once they have become part of our everyday life, but for people with injuries or disabilities that would mean a significant increase in quality of life.
