Honda has demonstrated a walking assist device; it resembles a unicycle with legs rather than a wheel. "We used ASIMO's technology for developing the walking assist device," said Masato Hirose, a senior engineer at Honda Research and Development.
(HONDA walking assist machine video)
The 6.5kg device - consisting of a saddle, leg-like frames and shoes - can reduce the load on users' legs while walking or climbing and descending stairs by supporting body weight, Honda said.
Honda said the motor-powered machine is still at an experimental stage, but elderly people and people undergoing rehabilitation who need support for their leg muscles and joints are the main target.
Fritz Leiber wrote specifically about the idea of a medically supportive exoskeleton in his 1968 book A specter Is Haunting Texas.
Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.' - Rog Philips, 1950.
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Boy Makes Biomimetic Turtle Robot
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
Origin F1 Humanoid Robot's Facial Skin
'I could look down at that face of carefully molded synthetic rubber, tinted the exact shade of the doctor's living flesh.'