Researchers at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have developed an exoskeleton for farmers. The idea is to assist the aging Japanese farmers in their daily routine by giving them greater strength to complete their work, much of which is manual labor.
easily lift 20 kilograms of rice during a demonstration at the Tokyo
University of Agriculture and Technology on Wednesday.
A robot suit designed to take the backbreaking factor out of farm
work by assisting the movements of users has been unveiled here.
The "farming robot suit," developed by a team of researchers led by
Shigeki Toyama, a professor in the graduate school of the Tokyo
University of Agriculture and Technology, has been tested on farms.
Researchers hope to have the technology in use in 2 years and develop
it into a product and begin selling it in four years.
The suit, which is secured with belts, consists of a resin framework
with eight motors to assist the movements of the knees, elbows, lower
back and shoulders, making farm work easier.
When pulling out a Japanese radish, for example, about 20 kilograms
of instantaneous pressure is exerted on the knees and lower back, but
when using the robot suit, only about half the force is used.
"As the age of farmers increases, I wanted to develop technology that would lighten their burden," Toyama said.
While machines are increasingly being used to cultivate farmland and
plant rice, human power is still often relied on for tasks such as
fruit picking and pruning, and transporting crops. During a
demonstration, a graduate student easily picked up 20 kilograms of rice.
"It hardly feels like I’m holding it," he said, smiling.
It is possible to program the robot suit to match the type of work.
With use of an independently developed ultrasonic motor, the weight of
the equipment can be lightened to about 8 kilograms. Sensors and
wireless devices will enable monitoring of the person wearing the suit
and make it possible for people to communicate even when they are not
working close together.
The projected cost for each set is between 500,000 and 1 million
yen, but developers expect to be able to lower the price to about
200,000 yen per suit if they can mass produce the product when it is
commercialized.