Robotic Exo-skeleton of Japan Gives Super-human Strength

This is the Power Loader, a robotic exoskeleton, developed by Japanese company Activelink. It may soon be giving humans strength that would make Superman envious.

Developed to assist construction workers, the Power Loader looks like something out of a sci-fi thriller.

Users lock their feet into the legs of the power loader using bicycle shoes and then grab sensors that can measure the direction, rotation, and force of pressure that a user applies and can translate that into the machine’s movement.

The force that a user applies is then multiplied to allow users to work in ways that they wouldn't be able to normally.

[Go Shirogauchi, Vice President, Activelink]:
"First of all, we hope to 'power up' human's arms and legs. We are looking to make it possible to work while carrying a hundred kilos."

The power loader is designed to be able to carry 220 pounds, or about the weight of one section of a disassembled crane piping.

In order to lift such heavy weights, the power loader multiplies the operator’s strength.

[Go Shirogauchi, Vice President, Activelink]:
"The amount of strength multiplication can be decided by changing settings in the software. With the current settings, a user's strength is multiplied by a factor of about 100."

While some software and hardware needs to be changed before the power loader is ready to work, Shirogauchi (pronounced Shiro-ga-oo-chi) and his team have set 2015 as the goal for putting the power loader out into the real world.
[Go Shirogauchi, Vice President, Activelink]:
"One target that we have is that by 2015, we hope to conduct an actual trial in the construction industry. We plan to conduct it in a way that actually helps people at a real construction site."

If the tests in 2015 go well, power loaders could soon be available do everything from loading containers to logging.