Tokyo - Japanese seniors may be able to enjoy independent lives even longer than they do now with the newly developed robotic suit, which may be leased to individual clients as early as next year.
The suit, developed by a Tsukuba University team of science professor Yoshiyuki Sankai and students, is designed to assist a user's limbs for easier movement.
A user is able to walk more easily and avoid muscle strains or lift objects as heavy as 20 kilogrammes in this suit because it moves slightly before the wearer's limbs. Sensors on the suit correspond with the user's brain signals, which would tell muscles to move.
The suit called, Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, is expected to go rental mainly for rehabilitation and everyday assistance as early as 2008, in collaboration with Daiwa House Industry Co, the Nikkei
Weekly said.
Daiwa House and the university venture company Cyberdyne Inc plan to produce 400 suits a year and set the monthly leasing fee between 60,000 yen (495 dollars) and 20,000 yen. Each suit is worth 500,000 yen.
Daiwa has invested about 1 billion yen in Cyberdyne, Japan's business daily said.
