Unlike its heavily-armed Hollywood counterparts, the Power Assist Suit aims to make life easier for Japan's army of greying farmers.
The metal-and-plastic exoskeleton boasts eight electric motors that amplify the strength of the wearer's arms and legs, as well as sensors that can detect movements and respond to commands through a voice-recognition system.
Professor Shigeki Toyama and his team developed the power-enhancing suit at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and Prof
Toyama plans to set up a company to start producing the futuristic outfit by the end of the year.
"If the farmer bends over to grasp a radish, his back will be firmly supported,'' Gohei Yamamoto, one of the students working on the team, said as he demonstrated the suit on his university campus.
"A brief vocal instruction will instantly straighten the rods along his legs, giving him the power he needs to pull the vegetable without effort.''
Fifteen years in the making, the robosuit will soon hit the market in Japan to help ageing farmers harvest their fruit and vegetables while avoiding backaches and nasty cramps.
Japan, with a low birthrate and a high life expectancy, is facing a demographic crisis as its population rapidly ages and shrinks.
Industrial robots have long been common in Japan, and robo-suits are making inroads in hospitals and retirement homes, where they can help carers lift patients or aid in physical rehabilitation exercises.
But with two thirds of the country's farm-workers already over 65 years old, the agriculture sector is a potentially lucrative untapped market.
The suit should hit the Japanese market in 2012, when it will initially retail for about one million yen ($12,500 dollars), a price tag its makers hope to halve if the device is mass-produced, the team said.
There are however no plans so far to sell the suits overseas.
The team has developed a heavy-duty 30kg model, for lifting big loads and pulling vegetables out of the ground, and a 23kg version designed for lighter tasks such as picking grapes.
The robo-suits can reduce the user's physical effort by 62 per cent on average.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/power-assist-suit-turns-elderly-japanese-farmers-into-horticultural-superheroes/story-e6frfro0-1225851880070#ixzz1x0meYRO8
