Cyberdyne Building Factory To Construct Consumer Power Exoskeletons
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 17 of April , 2008 at 5:07 am
This is Cyberdyne’s HAL (hybrid assistive limb) exoskeleton, a powered robotic suit designed to significantly increase the strength of the wearer. Using sensors attached to the skin, HAL senses which muscles you intend to move, and powers its joints at the same rate as you move yours, allowing you to walk around effortlessly while wearing the fifty pound suit. If you pick something up, the suit is able to compensate for a portion of the weight, effectively increasing your strength from 2 to 10 (!) times. The suit can be used indoors or outdoors and will provide power for between about three to five hours before it needs a recharge.
Prototypes of the HAL exoskeleton have been around for a few years, and Cyberdyne just begun to construct a new facility that should be able to produce 400 – 500 suits per year by the end of 2008, ramping up to tens of thousands of suits (!!) over the next few years. The best news is that the suits will be available for individual users overseas to rent (that’s us), for an estimated $1,000 per month which includes $300 for maintenance and upgrades. Is that a sweet deal or what? Sign me up, I’ll take one for Christmas.
[ Cyberdyne ] VIA [ Loving The Machine ]
Comments (25)
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Comment by Earthworm
Made Thursday, 17 of April , 2008 at 7:06 am
Holy mother of all things evil! WHO would name a technology company Cyberdyne after seeing Terminator 2?? Do they not realize they will be the harbinger of death to all mankind? Sure it starts with a few thousand “super suits” then maybe they dont need the human element, then maybe they can build themselves, then BOOOM nuclear holocaust.
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Thursday, 17 of April , 2008 at 7:08 am
Yeah, I thought that was pretty cute :)
Comment by Jim Zello
Made Thursday, 17 of April , 2008 at 7:52 am
Don’t forget, Hal, 2001’s homicidal A.I. Somebody is a big Sci-fi buff over there. Ironically, it’s generally Americans who are afraid of killer robots. Japan loves the robot, going back to the Edo period. Hopefully we’ll start to warm up to them in time. I think Wall-E might be a good start.
Comment by xamox
Made Thursday, 17 of April , 2008 at 10:17 am
Actually this is quite old. Like two years. I found the video a while ago and reposted it on youtube.
Comment by Earthworm
Made Friday, 18 of April , 2008 at 8:23 am
I’ll admit, I’d be the first one on line to buy one of these if they work like they say. I could just strap on a rocket pack and IronMan here I come! Or I could get a stormtroopers’ helmet and have an awesome Halloween costume.
Comment by Teros
Made Tuesday, 29 of April , 2008 at 12:47 pm
If you had one of these would you use its powers for good or for awesome?
Comment by Hammer
Made Tuesday, 29 of April , 2008 at 11:04 pm
Cyberdyne? HAL? With names like that, i don’t like where this is going.
Comment by Ben
Made Wednesday, 30 of April , 2008 at 6:37 am
Oh dear.
I wonder whether this is serious or a joke.
The names are VERY bad.
Comment by mokey
Made Thursday, 1 of May , 2008 at 2:12 pm
HAL, is a funnier joke than calling a company cyberdyne. take the 3 letters forward one in the alphabet, and discover the inspiration for homicidal computing ;)
Comment by puttputt
Made Thursday, 15 of May , 2008 at 6:07 pm
IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES! NOW NO NEED FOR COUCH POTATOES TO EXPAND A SINGLE CALORIE IN ORDER TO GET THEIR FAVORITE SNACK OR BEVERAGE FROM THE FRIDGE!
Comment by puttputt
Made Thursday, 15 of May , 2008 at 6:07 pm
DO they have them in XXXL?
Comment by Christian
Made Thursday, 15 of May , 2008 at 7:17 pm
This has got to be a joke. For one, not even the military has this level of tech for soldiers and they have been working on it for a while, and secondly, NO ONE would name a company/product after those two bad ideas of sci fi technology gone awry.
-Color me skeptical
Comment by Carl Nichols
Made Thursday, 15 of May , 2008 at 11:46 pm
First thing I would do is get naked and have sex with it on! Yeah baby!
Comment by Ravenhawk
Made Friday, 16 of May , 2008 at 12:10 am
Power Armor FTW.
Comment by James
Made Friday, 16 of May , 2008 at 8:38 am
Christian the only reason why soilders don’t have that is because our government doesn’t develop things like this. It is more private companies that make it and then sell it to the government.
Comment by Mike
Made Friday, 16 of May , 2008 at 8:40 am
haha say you swear Cyberdyne was the company in Terminator hahhaha
Comment by Evilbelgian
Made Friday, 16 of May , 2008 at 9:21 am
I think i agree with Christian on this i mean it seems a bit unlikely that the suit would be able to support its own weight as well as lift heavier objects with only a battery pack.On the other hand the website seems legit and the Japanese would be the kind of people to take the name of a company that destroyed humanity in a movie and think it a funny and ironic name for a robotics company.
Anyway I am no engineer i am just going to keep an eye on this to see what it turns out to be.
Comment by Vittra
Made Saturday, 21 of June , 2008 at 4:18 am
I think this sort of thing is awesome and also highly ironic that the company produces robot mechanics and names themselves Cyberdyne.
Terminator coming soon?
Comment by klikklak
Made Thursday, 26 of June , 2008 at 4:25 am
Hey americans, relax, it’s just science fiction. I for one think it’s nice to see science fiction references in undoubtedly sci-fi’y research AND that the japanese have their heads properly working that they don’t freak out because of a hollywood movie from the eighties.
Comment by Jake
Made Thursday, 24 of July , 2008 at 3:04 am
‘I can’t let you move that, Dave.’
Comment by nick
Made Tuesday, 29 of July , 2008 at 3:05 am
6kwvyz hi! hice site!
Comment by ethan454
Made Sunday, 7 of September , 2008 at 4:05 pm
I did a homework asignment on this and when I presented to the teacher he said “we need that for our footbal line!!!”
That would be a nearly invicible line!!!
(considering there alredy as buff as Arnold!)
Comment by Lou
Made Thursday, 9 of October , 2008 at 9:57 pm
I want one
Comment by Antiq
Made Tuesday, 10 of February , 2009 at 4:31 pm
wow.. i whant one for me :)
Comment by Paige
Made Tuesday, 9 of June , 2009 at 7:34 am
The robot suit, HAL, is designed to enhance a humans physical efficeiency by making the person wearing it at least 5x stronger. This technological progression is something I have been ignorant of and I find that these advances are amazing, and I never thought something as helpful as this would have existed at this time. With this new technology, i hope that one day doctors can eventually find a way to reconstruct a damaged nerve impulse of a paralyzed person to eventually make them mobile again if wearing a HAL. As recent studies show (from the video) scientists in Japan are already trying to aid people with disabilities to make them mobile once again. Also, i believe that in the future, mechanism of war will change, because one day countries may be able to provide its soldiers with a bullet proof version of this robo-armor, which would change war on earth forever, essentially making it an “artificially intelligent” war. One man in the video mentioned that AI was impossible to create, which i disagree with because there is proof of Artificial Intelligence already, specifically Kismet, Cog, Leo, and Mertz.