Better living through robotics!
Currently available in Japan, will start to become elsewhere in next few years.
- Power assist suits for manual labor to prevent back injury.
- Power assist for walking that helps provide stabilization and reduce fatigue for people who can walk, but may not be able to rise from a seated position or walk for extended periods who might otherwise use a wheelchair
- Bed that splits in half and converts to a wheelchair, so you don’t have to transfer between them.
- lift assist robot for nursing homes that simply helps you rise and not lose balance and only provides assist if needed (helps reduce muscle atrophy, but keeps you safe from fall as well)
- the heavy loader from ALIENS, for heavy industrial work and search and rescue.
SOME of these have recently been approved for use in EU and US or are in process, so may soon be an option. The walk assistance one is also available from other manufacturers in slightly different design (HAL by Cyberdyne, I am not making that name up- also some US versions from military), so are most likely to become available and affordable first.
Some of these are also designed for use by caregivers and nurses to make it easier and safer to care for people. You might also run into some of these if you’re doing physical therapy, where they can provide temporary assistance to recover faster with lower risk of re-injury.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Frosted 