The scientists at Activelink, a Panasonic subsidiary in Kyoto, have undoubtedly been inspired by the movie Aliens.  How else would they have gotten the idea (and name) for the Power Loader exoskeleton?  In “Aliens,” Ellen Ripley jumps inside a hydraulic exoskeleton called a Power Loader to fight off the Alien Queen.  The suit gives her superhuman strength and negates the Alien’s natural size and strength advantage, though the suit is designed for carrying heavy weights and not monster combat.  There’s more than just an uncanny resemblance at work here.

The Power Loader designed by Activelink is an aluminum-alloy frame featuring 18 electromagnetic motors designed to lift up to 500 pounds while offering pinpoint accuracy and delicate manual control (unlike, say, a forklift).  While the suit is still in development, Panasonic hopes to have a commercial version available by 2015 at the latest, which is good because I can see these kind of suits really becoming popular in warehouses and factories due to a scarcity of fork lift operator licenses. They’re much smaller and lighter than the suit used in “Aliens,” and don’t run on hydraulic power, but every day more and more science fiction becomes science fact.

Tags: power loader suit, exoskeleton, sci-fi inventions come to life, Activelink, Panasonic, power loader, robot suit, Kyoto, Japan

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