Why the heck would I go shoe shopping when I can buy a sexy pair of robot pants instead?
I recently did some YouTube surfing to catch up on the latest development in robotics and was surprised to find how far we’ve come in the development of exoskeletons. As of 2007, Berkeley Bionics had created exoskeletons for both warfare and medicine, and they tested the exoskeletons in several real life situations. The original exoskeleton is small, lightweight, and totally super hero looking. No one will ever question your fashion choice as long as you have a badass pair of cyberpunk robot pants on. In fact, I’ll probably ask you out on a date just so I can get into your cyberpunk robot pants, quite literally.
You can find videos of land soldiers using the exoskeletons as if it were a tool they never had to go without. The exoskeleton carries the entire load, straps easily to their body, is quickly put on and removed, and does not impede the movement of their body in any way. In fact, the exoskeleton can even take some of the weight of your own body and lower your heart rate. In 2007, Sacros developed an exoskeleton that fit on the upper body and allowed a man to lift hundreds of pounds of weight with no more effort than it would take him to scratch his nose. Then, Sacros put both the robot pants and the robot shirt together to make an entire robot outfit. A robot suit if you will. Ridiculous? Yes. A product I want for myself? Totally. Don’t tell anyone, but I kiiinda want to date a robot now. This isn’t the first time Techcitement has gotten hot for exoskeletons. Our EIC, Justin Davis, discussed an exoskeleton called HULC in one of his weekly Segues columns called Stop Scaring Yourself.
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My favorite story that shows the importance of the development of exoskeletons is that of a paralyzed Berkley student named Austin Whitney. Whitney became paralyzed from the waist down as the result of drinking and driving and spent his college career in a wheelchair. During his time at Berkley, he met the engineering professor, Homayoon Kazerooni. Professor Kazerooni spent twenty years developing the exoskeleton. As soon as he met Whitney, Kazerooni told him about the project and gave him the goal of walking across the stage at graduation. Whitney, a group of students, and Kazerooni set out to design and create an exoskeleton for the college student to test. The project was a success and Whitney was able to walk for the first time in years and did so at his college graduation.
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Every day, people find themselves the victim of a paralyzing injury or accident. I can only imagine the hope and possibility that the Berkeley Exoskeleton gives them. Hell, I can walk and I still want a pair. And based on the research and work that Whitney’s classmates did, it’s not entirely unlikely that I will get my very own pair of robot pants, along with all the people in the world that really need them. What Whitney’s classmates did that was revolutionary was to create an exoskeleton that was less sophisticated, smaller, lighter, and ultimately less expensive than other exoskeletons that came before it. They had the idea to make exoskeletons that would be accessible to all people, no matter the size of their pay check. I think their efforts to make this kind of technology accessible to the general public is fantastic. In fact, it’s bizarre to think that it took car companies until now to make an environmentally-friendly auto. Honestly, car companies are still figuring that out. In addition, the cost of these cars remains high and not as affordable as they should be. It seems as if the population will go through its second mechanization and become robots faster than we can become environmentally friendly. Even now, the army has suits designed that fully encase a human body and that turns the average human into a sexy and dangerous, building leaping, gun wielding super villain destroying badass. Soon, the limits of our bodies are going to be redefined and we’ll leave the slow process of evolution behind to take meters into our own hands. “Screw you monkeys from which we came, we’re robots now. We walk extra upright.”
Becoming paralyzed could very well become a disease of the past. If you do find yourself missing the use of your legs, you could strap on your new robot pants and go for a run. However, I’d like to know when we’re going to start combining our ability to grow organs with our ability to make robotics, because I would secretly like to become the Borg Queen.
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