Transformer Suit Lets You Lift 220 Pounds

HAL Cyberdyne

Italian engineers have created a robotic exoskeleton that gives you super human abilities. Perceptual Robotics Laboratory in Italy created the “Body Extender” which is the best and most sophisticated wearable robot developed to date. The engineers behind the suit say it could help in disaster zones such as earthquakes because the wearer would be able to lift large pieces of debris trapping people. There is no known date of when the exoskeleton will be available and ready to use in the field. “It’s a device that’s able to track the complex movements of the human body, and also to amplify the force of the user,” Fabio Selsedo from Percro told the BBC.

Robotic Exoskeleton

This isn’t the first of its kind though, two years ago, Japanese company Cyberdyne (yes, the same name as the company in “The Terminator” that invents Skynet, which eventually becomes self aware and tries to wipe out humanity) unveiled its Hybrid Assisted Limb (HAL) power suit, which was changed to handle radiation to help out other disaster sites like the Fukushima meltdown in Japan. Around the same time, NASA revealed the X1 Robotic Exoskeleton, which could be used to help strengthen astronauts in outer space or to help people with walking disabilities. More recently, 3D Systems and Ekso Bionics teamed up to 3D-print a bionic suit that helped a woman paralyzed in a skiing accident regain her mobility.

What the engineering company has assured the public, is that the “Body Extender” will not be available to the public to use for robot wars for some time now.

 

Kyron Timbs
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