Kevin She
Source | intelligent relativity (aixdlun)
In "The Revenant 4," Iron Man, Tony Stark, who has been with us for many years, is still gone. Stark is still leaving us in the midst of an unforgiving (no . . Drama. Iron Man, the man who saved Marvel from collapse, was also a leader in opening the door to the world of sci-fi for many.
How many people, especially boys, fantasized about owning a set of mechs after watching Iron Man, and now that dream is getting closer and closer.
Exoskeleton devices have been landing in many fields
Iron Man's armor is actually a set of exoskeleton wearable devices, also known as wearable robots, this kind of equipment for the technical requirements of the high, the need to set the artificial intelligence, sensing, mobile control, information, energy, drive system and so on in one.
Exoskeleton robots can provide power for wearable, its application range is very wide, and there are many mature products at home and abroad.
In the actual landing, exoskeleton devices are mainly distributed in two directions, one is the increase type, one is the auxiliary type, the former is mainly used in the military and industrial fields, the latter is more common in the medical field.
The concept of exoskeleton robots first came from the military field, around 2000, the U.S. military produced the idea of cultivating super soldiers, "exoskeleton robots" at this time was proposed.
The U.S. military expects this type of exoskeleton wearable device to improve the soldier's ability to increase by external machinery, so that their speed, jumping, strength and other aspects of the enhancement.
Some of the more famous military exoskeleton robots are Raytheon's XOS and Lockheed Martin's Human Exoskeleton Load Carrying System.
In recent years, China has been paying more and more attention to military exoskeleton robots, for example, the China National Weapons Corporation, China National Aerospace Industry Corporation, and the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are all working on research and development in this area of technology.
Like in the movie "Wandering Earth", the exoskeleton equipment also appeared many times, such as equipped with Gatling model arm, and the last concerted efforts to promote the "thimble" used by the increase in the gloves, are all belong to the exoskeleton equipment.
Outside of the military, the most common use of exoskeleton devices is in medical rehabilitation. In this field, exoskeleton devices are mainly used in the disabled and the elderly, after having an exoskeleton robot, can help restore the ability to walk, or directly endowed with the ability to stand and walk again.
In this area is more famous in the United States EksoEkso Bionics company, as early as 2012, its equipment has begun to like hospitals and rehabilitation centers to provide.
On the domestic side, there has been a wave of companies in recent years, including Fourier Intelligence, Scream Technology, Daiai, Maibu, Chengtian Technology, and so on.
These companies started late compared to the large foreign companies, but now they have all got the market financing, indicating that the market is very recognized for the prospects of exoskeleton robots.
Daiai's exoskeleton robot, in June 2018, became China's first CFDA-certified lower limb exoskeleton robot.
Especially in the domestic market, according to data released by the State Post Bureau, China's express delivery business volume reached 50.71 billion pieces in 2018, and exoskeleton devices have become very necessary for related practitioners.
Jingdong equipped its employees with exoskeleton robots in 2017, and although Jingdong has long been deploying unmanned warehousing systems, manual labor is still needed to assist the machines. Employees bend over thousands and thousands of times a day to sort the courier, in the long run, the iron body can not stand.
Jingdong's exoskeleton robots use pressure sensors, gyroscopes, wireless conduction and other technologies and instruments, by virtue of the dynamics of the original, to help workers to reduce the load, reduce physical injury, and significantly improve efficiency. With the power system of the exoskeleton device, even female employees can easily carry 15KG of goods.
In addition to the above areas, exoskeleton robots are also widely used in disaster relief and rescue scenarios.
The only difference between you and Iron Man is 450,000 knives
If those devices look like Iron Man, you should be satisfied with the next set. You'll be happy with this one.
Gravity Industries, a British company, has developed the Jet Suit, a suit of "flight armor" that allows you to fly like Iron Man.
This set of equipment comes with six mini flight engines, each weighing 22 kilograms, respectively mounted on four in the arms and two in the calves or back, using lithium batteries to start, and then continue to provide power through the burning of fuel to wear by changing the direction of the body to control the flight.
In terms of altitude and speed, the Jet Suit certainly exceeds your expectations, with a maximum altitude of nearly 4,000 meters and a maximum speed of nearly 89 kilometers per hour.
In 2017, the Jet Suit also set a Guinness World Record for the fastest speed in a body-controlled jet engine power suit, and was also named to TIME Magazine's 2018 Generation "Best Inventions of the Year" list.
The device was developed to allow humans to rethink the future of flight, but the technology is still far from adequate, consuming 4 liters of fuel per minute after startup and lasting up to 9 minutes of flight time.
The good news is that the Jet Suit is already on sale at Selfridge's department store in the UK for $450,000 (about $3 million), and is limited to nine sets worldwide.
Currently, Gravity Industries is looking to launch a series of world-class gravity races where each competes with their own flying gear, and is already in discussions with possible host cities, media outlets, and sponsors about the exact running of the event, which could be as soon as the end of this year.
That said, this set of equipment in fact does not have too many practical functions, can only be used for entertainment, although the world is limited to 9 sets, but I think it should not have been sold out, money more capricious friends, you may wish to consider getting a set of, after all, 3 million in the city center of North Canton is only enough to buy a toilet, but with it you may be the next "Iron Man"! "
This is the first time I've ever seen the Iron Man.
Commercialization of exoskeleton robots in China is still a problem
Although the powerful functionality and huge market demand for exoskeleton robots has embarked on the process of commercialization, the results are not as good as expected. In the case of medical rehabilitation exoskeleton devices, for example, three aspects of the problem are not solved, the market will not be able to reach the desired height.
First, the price problem is the biggest stumbling block to the large-scale universal application of exoskeleton robots. Affected by hardware technology, most domestic exoskeleton robotics companies have not yet been able to realize large-scale mass production, which has led to the high price of the product.
By and large, the price of an ordinary domestic medical exoskeleton robot is about 200,000-500,000 yuan, although compared to the United States, Japan, imported products can easily be 1 million, or even 2 million a set of prices to be a lot lower, but this is still not the general public can accept the price.
In 2016, screaming technology CTO Li Muran said, "We hope that within three years we can reach the price of a large home appliance." Now three years have passed, but the price of the product has basically not changed.
In the case of the price remains unchanged, the device will be included in the scope of medical insurance, may be able to solve the user "can not afford" problem, but obviously this is not a moment can be achieved, so the product price can not be adjusted downward, its commercialization process is destined to be difficult.
Secondly, the technical problems will certainly become a roadblock. Although the current application of exoskeleton robots in the field of medical rehabilitation is relatively mature, but due to the late start of the domestic industry, the technology was once monopolized by the U.S., Japan and other countries, and in the upstream core components are also heavily dependent on foreign countries.
Another major technical challenge is the battery life, the current exoskeleton robot is still powered by the battery, the endurance is far from 24 hours of use, the user's range of activities by the battery capacity and efficiency of the great limitations. How to increase the energy capacity or change the existing charging method to expand the user's activity range and efficiency has become a key issue.
Finally, exoskeleton robots are considered to be an extension of the human body as a body-worn device, so their comfort is also very important. Although the research on wearable exoskeleton devices has been relatively mature, not enough attention has been paid to civilian comfort.
For exoskeleton robots, there has been less investment in ergonomics, a field that is closely related to the user.
Currently, most medical rehabilitation exoskeleton devices are strapped on, which can be very uncomfortable. The standards for thermal and humidity comfort and tactile comfort also need to be improved.
Therefore, these three decisive issues can not be resolved, the commercialization of exoskeleton robots will be difficult to enter the right track. Only when these real-world problems are solved will exoskeleton robots be able to achieve high-speed and sustained development in a broad market.