Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

newscientist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 54 posts

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#21

Post by jakejake »

grecy wrote: post #16
hudibras wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US Navy personnel who tour the newest generation of Korean and Japanese warships are universally astounded by the high quality, attention-to-detail, and overall great design. Without exception, our sailors come off the ships blinking and asking "Why aren't we buying these?"

Totally anecdotal - I've seen a lot of foreigners react in the same (but opposite) way when they come to the US. i.e. driving on major roads around NYC, visiting schools, looking at houses, etc. "Wow, it looks like it's half finished" "Everything is so dirty" "It's all covered in graffiti and falling down" etc., etc.

NYC is an awesome city, but you have to admit that walking around certain streets of NYC is not really a fair comparison to touring a top-of-the-line factory!

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#23

Post by vonklaus »

angersock wrote: post #13
vonklaus wrote: post #7

I think this is an amazing and inevitable outcome. However, sort of disappointed by the 60 kilo max. I feel like these suits need to be an ordwr of magnitude better than humans to be viable. There are certainly people who can lift 125lb objects. I understand that fatigue and uniformity factor in, but it will be great to see 300lb+ suits

That's overengineering--being able to consistently lift 60-100 kg. would be quite useful.

Right. That was sort of my point, I understand it is useful to consistently lift and move heavy stiff without fatiguing oneself. I think if you were to improve it to say, 250kg it would fit a lot more usecases. Overengineering, in my opinion, would be asking for an iron man suit.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#24

Post by bpodgursky »

vonklaus wrote: post #23
angersock wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's overengineering--being able to consistently lift 60-100 kg. would be quite useful.

Right. That was sort of my point, I understand it is useful to consistently lift and move heavy stiff without fatiguing oneself. I think if you were to improve it to say, 250kg it would fit a lot more usecases. Overengineering, in my opinion, would be asking for an iron man suit.

I suspect that when you get up to 250kg you run into stability issues as much as strength issues. Even if you could lift it easily, it would be really tricky to hold it in a way that you won't tip over and drop it.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#25

Post by anigbrowl »

hudibras wrote: post #17
anigbrowl wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China has a cheaper labor force, but Japan and South Korea? And how does this fit with their intensive use of robots, which are presumably meant to reduce labor costs?

Both Japan and Korea used to have cheaper labor costs and they used that advantage along with manufacturing improvements to maintain their industries to the present day through economies of scale and lack of competition from other countries (once they've been driven out of the industry, like the U.S. and Greece). It's roughly analogous as if the rise of Honda and Toyota in the 1960s ran all the U.S. car manufacturers…

Good-sounding theory, but I can't help noticing the continued existence of several US car manufacturers, even if they've been through bankruptcy proceedings along the way.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#26

Post by humbledrone »

nwh wrote: post #22

Hate to see what happens when a bug causes the wrong motors to fire and the thing breaks all of your bones. Be awesome to use one though all the same.

It seems feasible to design an exoskeleton suit that is mechanically incapable of breaking your bones. You could pick some flexibility constraints that define a conservative model of how human limbs can bend and swivel, and then design the hardware with physical interlocks that prevent it from moving beyond those limits. Picture an elbow joint that has a metal flange situated such that if the motor tried to extend the arm beyond the normal human straight elbow angle it would be mechanically blocked.

The thing that I find more worrisome is the fact that little squishy people will be handling things that are so heavy that, if fumbled, would carry enough momentum to rip right through them. Imagine letting a 250 kg piece of metal slip -- if it hit your flesh, that's a problem. Once the strength of these suits gets high enough to handle loads like that I think we'll have to see more actual exoskeleton armor to protect the pilots.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#27

Post by Cthulhu_ »

anigbrowl wrote: post #25
hudibras wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both Japan and Korea used to have cheaper labor costs and they used that advantage along with manufacturing improvements to maintain their industries to the present day through economies of scale and lack of competition from other countries (once they've been driven out of the industry, like the U.S. and Greece). It's roughly analogous as if the rise of Honda and Toyota in the 1960s ran all the U.S. car manufacturers…

Good-sounding theory, but I can't help noticing the continued existence of several US car manufacturers, even if they've been through bankruptcy proceedings along the way.

They've always been rescued / bailed out (IIRC) by the US government whenever they were on the verge of collapse - they're pretty big employers (direct and indirect), and I'm pretty sure it's also a matter of pride for the US ('Murca, yeah!). I somehow doubt the US government would be as inclined to bail out, for example, Google or another major tech company if they got into trouble.

On the other hand, there's plenty of competing companies that could bail out / buy (parts of) Google (or some other company) if they got into trouble - see MySpace and Digg and major web companies like that that became obsolete and effectively went out of business.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#28

Post by Cthulhu_ »

humbledrone wrote: post #26
nwh wrote: post #22

Hate to see what happens when a bug causes the wrong motors to fire and the thing breaks all of your bones. Be awesome to use one though all the same.

It seems feasible to design an exoskeleton suit that is mechanically incapable of breaking your bones. You could pick some flexibility constraints that define a conservative model of how human limbs can bend and swivel, and then design the hardware with physical interlocks that prevent it from moving beyond those limits. Picture an elbow joint that has a metal flange situated such that if the motor tried to extend th…

A 100kg limit is feasible, that's not yet heavy enough (I think?) to cause major damage if a mishap happens. ATM workers are handling loads like that - and heavier - with cranes and clever tools that make the pieces they handle effectively weightless (check car assembly workers for example), those also don't carry that much risk when handled right. Laws and regulations for these will be just as stringent as other industrial tools, I'm sure.

Re: Robotic suit gives shipyard workers super strength

#29

Post by Cthulhu_ »

bpodgursky wrote: post #24
vonklaus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. That was sort of my point, I understand it is useful to consistently lift and move heavy stiff without fatiguing oneself. I think if you were to improve it to say, 250kg it would fit a lot more usecases. Overengineering, in my opinion, would be asking for an iron man suit.

I suspect that when you get up to 250kg you run into stability issues as much as strength issues. Even if you could lift it easily, it would be really tricky to hold it in a way that you won't tip over and drop it.

Yeah, it'd need to be combined with research going on atm with bipedal robots; they'd have to be able to keep themselves balanced.
Post reply on HN