The idea of wearing an exoskeleton in order to augment one’s natural strength has long been explored in the world of science fiction, but it is only in recent times that the real world is making strides in the exoskeleton industry. The folks at New Scientist actually made a trip to a Japanese laboratory in order to give one of those wearable muscle suits a go, and in their tryout, they managed to lift 40 kilograms of rice without breaking a sweat – literally. According to the wearer of the muscle suit, “It takes a second to register, but the 40 kg of rice I just picked up like a human forklift truck suddenly seem as light as a feather.”
When placed in the right hands, such a suit would definitely benefit mankind, and assuming it is constructed in a tougher and more durable manner, we could see a change in how the construction industry works, where cranes and forks might see minimal use unless necessary, and humans wearing such suits can do all the heavy lifting themselves, being more mobile at the same time.
I have come to understand that such suits do require an extremely high amount of power to run, so battery technology, too, will have to keep up with the technology race for there to be no “bottleneck” in this area. I say that anything from the GI Joe movie is good enough for me, and the military would definitely love to have something like it.
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