- TOKYO (AFP) -- Japanese companies
are preparing for the commercial launch of a "robot suit" that
helps aged or physically disabled people walk, get up the stairs or seat
themselves to relax without a chair.
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- Trading house Mitsui and Co. and some 30 other Tokyo
firms plan to set up a joint-venture in April or May next year to market
the powered suit developed by Yoshiyuki Sankai, professor and engineer
at Tsukuba University, officials said Thursday.
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- "This is neither a robot in machine factories nor
a one for amusement like a pet robot. This is a brand-new proposal projecting
a future image of relations between people and robots," Sankai said.
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- "The suit practically supports people's life, focusing
on the strong point of robots," Sankai said.
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- The powered suit, code-named HAL-3 (Hybrid Assistive
Leg), consists of a computer and batteries in the backpack as well as four
actuators attached around the knees and hip joints.
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- The motor-powered devices guide movement of the legs
as the computer calculates the user's next motion by detecting faint electric
signals from the muscle, the professor said.
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- With the equipment, the user can walk at a speed of four
kilometres (2.5 miles) per hour with little physical exertion and avoid
the jerky stop-go moves of ordinary robots.
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- As a first step, the new venture plans to lease or sell
10 prototypes next year, targetting hospitals and nursing-care facilities
at home and abroad, Sankai said.
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- A mid-term goal for the project is to sell some 100 suits
a year at a price of one million yen (8,440 dollars).
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- Sankai also noted that Japan's greying society was a
key consideration behind the development of the suit.
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- "As the country is heading rapidly towards an ageing
society, the demand for such a robotic support system will certainly grow,"
the professor said.
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- "Not only the elderly but also disabled people will
be able to live comfortably, leaving heavy physical tasks to the suit,"
he said.
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- The need for Japan to take measures to deal with its
ageing society is increasingly urgent. The proportion of people aged 65
or older in Japan came to a record high of 18.82 percent, according to
the latest government report on population released on Wednesday.
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- Improvements to the suit are already being worked on.
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- The weight of the system will be soon reduced from the
current 17 kilogrammes (37 pounds) to some 10 kilogrammes, while the projecting
part of the actuators will be halved to five centimetres (one and three
quarter inches).
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- "We have also started developing a version for arms,"
Sankai said. "Eventually, we aim to make a suit that is thin enough
to be worn like underwear and will allow users to run and move their arms
freely."
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- Japan was in the vanguard of robotic technology, developing
industry robots in the post-war period of rapid economic expansion, and
has recently enjoyed a boom in leisure-oriented robots and talking, walking
humanoid robots, developed by major Japanese firms such as Sony and Honda
Motor.
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