The Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has developed a robot suit, which is tailormade to improve the efficiency of agricultural work, i.e. pulling radishes out the ground or collecting oranges from trees.
The so-called “Half” was designed with the background of Japan having the world’s oldest population. 20% of people over here are 65 or older, while the percentage is twice as big among farm workers. Pulling out radishes exerts a force of about 30kg on a human’s back but Half is supposedly able to halve (no pun intended) that number.
The suit is equipped with a total of eight motors and 16 sensors. In its current form, the model weighs 25 kilograms with the developers hoping to present a 12.5kg suit by 2011.
Half is expected to go on sale for between $6,000 and $11,000.