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.
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.' - Neal Asher, 2008.
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Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'