Tech Update: Exoskeletons the Future of Industrial Labor

Major companies like Ford, Siemens, and Lowe’s are starting to invest heavily in exosuits (tech suits capable of giving humans super-human strength). As a result of these investments, what used to be just a concept and a sci-fi topic for movies is steadily becoming a reality in modern day factories.

Paul Collins is an employee at a Ford factory in Michigan. He sticks out like a sore thumb along the final assembly line because the vest he’s wearing is most obviously more than a vest, its an exoskeleton. Since May of this year, Collins has been beta-testing an exoskeleton vest and is one of only four workers in the Michigan area that get to wear the vests.

The vest that Paul Collins has been wearing at Ford is made by Ekso Bionics, a Richmond, California-based company. It’s an electronic-free contraption, and the soft part that hugs his chest looks like the front of a backpack. But the back of it has a metal rod for a spine, and a small, curved pillow rests behind his neck. Extending from the spine are spring-loaded arm mechanics, ones that help Collins lift his arms to install carbon cans on Ford C-Max cars, and rubber grommets on Ford Focuses — about 70 cars an hour.

We are truly living in an age of wonder where robots roam the streets on the way to make deliveries, workers wear exoskeletons to help them perform repetitive tasks and AI helps people accomplish tasks that used to take ages without their assistance.

What do you guys think of exoskeletons? Are these contraptions going to be commonplace in the workplace in the next few years?

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Source:
Are exoskeletons the future of physical labor? - The Verge

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The Verge