Tech times - HAL suit

July 10, 2007 Edition 1

Sebastian Stent

We have all dreamt of having superhuman strength and being able to lift massive objects with the greatest of ease. This dream is now a reality thanks to some amazing work at the Tsukuba University of Japan, where the HAL bodysuit has been developed.

The Japanese have long been obsessed with robots - from the very first appearance of AstroBoy - and have been working towards robotic-assisted suits for many years.

While there are a number of commercially available artificially intelligent robots, the HAL bodysuit is the first technology to combine robotic elements with an able-bodied human user.

The name, for everyone who has watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, is unfortunate. In the film HAL was the on-board computer which went crazy, killing off the crew.

However, HAL is an acronym for Hybrid Assistive Limb suit, which does exactly what it says.

Powered by a 100-volt battery attached to the waist, the suit senses any movement of the wearer then translates it into equal movements in the bionic exoskeleton, so that the wearer can move normally, but do extraordinary things with the actions they perform.

The sensors are located across all extremities and so any movement, no matter how small, is immediately turned into movement in the suit. This means the suit's responses are not active but reactive, making the consequences of each action relative to the effort put in by the wearer.

The HAL suit has been rigorously tested, including on a trip up Mont Blanc in the French Alps, where two climbers wearing HAL suits carried two disabled people up the mountain - one being carried on the back of a HAL user and the other being dragged up on a sled.

Now the HAL is entering active service and being rented out in Japan. For manual work, the HAL is unsurpassed - a body-worn forklift truck that means the workers can move much more fluidly and shift heavy objects in a confined space.

And if you want a HAL? The HAL 5 is commercially available and can be bought for as little as 1 500 000 yen, which is about R84 900. - bigeyeddeer@yahoo.co.uk