/ News
Human Exoskeleton, The ‘Body Extender,’ Is ‘Most Complex Wearable Robot’ Ever Built
Engineers in Italy have created what is known as the “Body Extender,” a type of machine that humans can be strapped into like something out of Star Wars.
At the Perceptual Robotics Laboratory, also known as Percro, engineers have created a robot that can carry humans, protect them, and move heavy objects as a form of exoskeleton, or skeleton outside of the body.
“This is the most complex wearable robot that has been ever built in the world,” Fabio Salsedo of Percro told the BBC. “It’s a device which is able to track the complex movement of the human body and also to amplify the force of the operator.” The machine can lift about 50 kilograms (110 lbs.) in each of its hands, and can exert 10 times the force that the person inside applies. This gives humans super strength: a chance to pick up really heavy objects and throw them much farther than our natural bodies could.
The term "exoskeleton" is used to describe the outer skeletons, or shells, in insects and animals like grasshoppers, cockroaches, crabs, and lobsters. The exoskeleton provides these critters with support and protection against predators.
For humans, the engineers see plenty of options in which robotic exoskeletons could be beneficial. “There are several possible applications,” Salsedo told the BBC. “For example if you have to assemble a very complex product like an aircraft, this is a machine which is very flexible. You can lift the panel, rotate it and position it in the right position.” The robot may also be used to rescue victims in cases of natural disasters like earthquakes, when “you need something very flexible in order to intervene rapidly without damaging the victim,” Salsedo said.
Another exoskeleton technology company in Israel, Argo Medical Technologies, developed a device called ReWalk to be employed in medicine. ReWalk helps people with lower limb disabilities to walk using crutches. It’s approved for use in Europe, buthas yet to be approved by the FDA.
Dr. Ann Spungen, associate professor of rehabilitation medicine at Mount Sinai, has been studying spinal cord injuries and has been watching the gradual development of robotic exoskeletons for years. Spungen has done research that supports ReWalk as a beneficial device: “All the terrible things that go wrong from a sedentary lifestyle are magnified in a person with spinal cord injury, so any activity that we can provide for them, stands to reason to have benefit,” she told CBS News. Not to mention the emotional benefits of being able to walk and move again after a devastating injury would be significant.
Professor Chris Melhuish, director of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, told the BBC that exoskeletons are “a technology which is growing fast and maturing. The type of functionality of the exoskeleton depends on what you want it to do and to what degree you want it to be autonomous.” He said they have the potential to work in medical rehabilitation, or can “augment human function” in the context of military or factories, where people may handle heavy materials.
Source: http://www.medicaldaily.com/human-exoskeleton-body-extender-most-complex-wearable-robot-ever-built-270576
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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