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Navy’s Exoskeleton Could Make Workers 20 Times More Productive
Military work is physically demanding—and we’re not just talking about soldiers on the battlefield. Travel down the chain, and you’ll find plenty of positions where strength and stamina are highly valued skills. Take the Navy for example. The Navy needs ships and those ships need to be built and maintained—a rough, physically draining job. Sandblasting, riveting, and grinding excess metal off the ships can take a toll on the human body. You’re often carrying tools that can weigh upwards of 30 pounds. “There’s a lot of wear and tear on you,” says Adam Miller, director of new initiatives for Lockheed Martin. “Skilled workers can maybe do that for three to four minutes then they need to put the tool down and they need to rest.”
For the past couple of years, Miller has been leading a team of engineers and designers to create one of the first industrial-use exoskeletons. Called the FORTIS, the exoskeleton is able to support tools of up to 36 pounds and transfer that load from a worker’s hands and arms to the ground. The goal is to lighten workers’ loads, ultimately making them more productive and skilled at their jobs. The U.S. Navy recently bought two of the exoskeletons and plans to test them over the next six months to see how they might be used in an industrial situation.
Compared to something like the TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit), a computerized exoskeleton that essentially wants to turn mere mortals into Iron Man, the FORTIS is fairly simple. “I would call it elegant,” says Miller. The anodized aluminum and carbon fiber skeleton weighs 30 pounds, and follows along the outside of a human’s body. It has joints in the parts of the body that would regularly have joints (ankle, knee, hip) and flexes from side to side at the waist. Miller says the skeleton was designed for complex environments—whoever is wearing it can climb stairs or a ladder, squat and generally move business as usual in the exoskeleton. Tools mount to the front of the FORTIS and that weight is directed through the joints in the hip and down to the floor, relieving stress on the entire body, including the feet and ankles. ...
http://www.wired.com/2014/09/navys-exos ... id-1542461