HAL: Real-life Iron Man suit

By Leslie Katz on 14 April 2009, 10:30am

This is about the closest thing to Iron Man's power suit we've seen. Put it on, say its creators, and the motorised Hybrid Assistive Limb can "expand and improve physical capability" up to tenfold in activities such as walking, standing and climbing stairs.

Through a sensor attached to the skin, HAL captures faint biosignals on the skin's surface that result from messages sent from the brain to muscles when a person attempts to move. A computer analyses how much power the wearer intends to generate, then calculates the amount of torque needed to put limbs into action.

It's especially noteworthy that the suit responds to intended motion, rather than actual motion.

"This is what we call a 'voluntary control system' that provides movement interpreting the wearer's intention from the biosignals in advance of the actual movement," explains Japan's Cyberdyne, which will soon begin manufacturing the cybernetic suits for the yen equivalent of around £2,800 each, possibly making it the first such wearable device aimed at civilians.

The company was formed by Sankai Yoshiyuki, a professor at the University of Tsukuba, who is heading up research on HAL. Yoshiyuki says HAL has the advantages of both robot and cyborg and that he was inspired by reading Isaac Asimov's I Robot as a child.

Given the response to steroid use in professional sports, don't expect to see athletes competing in this performance-enhancing suit anytime soon. HAL is currently being used by people in Japan with weakened muscles and disabilities related to strokes and spinal-cord injuries. It's also expected to report for heavy-labour support at factories, as well as rescue support at disaster sites.

Cyberdyne insists that the suit won't wear you down, as the exoskeleton supports its own weight. The latest battery runs for five hours under "normal activities".

Photo credit: Cyberdyne