Powered Jacket: First Commercial Exoskeleton To Be Released In Japan

The world is in a state of constant change. We’ve all heard the predictions of people having robot housekeepers, and how we’ll prefect them into all kinds of other robots to relieve ourselves from hard labor. In Japan, they seem to have a different opinion or they’ve just jumped forward a few decades because a company there recently announced they are going to commercially start selling an exoskeleton called the Powered Jacket.

It looks like the iRobot approach is not one that is very appealing in Japan since they seem to think that an exoskeleton is better for people. This will allow them to do what they have to do with the help of actuators and pullies instead. The innovation is said to be available to the public sometime at the end of the year. It is a 2.25m tall exoskeleton that when worn could help you at least pull a lot of attention to yourself.

The Powered Jacket weighs about 25 kg and is current set to cost about € 120,000. It’s not exactly your average budget for a housekeeper or a suit for that matter, but it’s still a pretty neat invention that could come to spark a whole lot of interest, at least in Japan. If people pay more attention to it, there is bound to be a whole lot of competition which will drive the price down. It would be somewhat like what the first 3D printers did to the 3d printing industry.

This exoskeleton is made out of carbon fiber and aluminum and is designed by Sagawa Electronics. With their skills, they have managed to create a Powered Jacket that will not only draw a lot of attention to you, but it could probably at least help you pick up an egg without breaking it. It’s interesting how people always put their attention towards something that is totally out there or maybe not. This Powered Jacket is going to make it to the commercial market, so all we have to do is wait and see how people receive it.

Sagawa Electronics’ Powered Jacket Exoskeleton

Via: [UFunk – French]