Movie Tech: Panasonic Creates PowerLoader Exo Skeleton Just Like ‘Aliens’ Film
At Digilyfe we love to show you how what you see in films, is quickly becoming reality. In James Cameron’s 1986 film ‘Aliens’, Sigourney Weaver entered a ‘Power Loader’ exo skeleton to fight the queen alien in one of the most classic showdowns in movie history. The power loader, which was designed by Cameron, was a futuristic construction rig utility workers would use in the future to move heavy objects. Of course this was fiction right? well, this was fiction until Panasonic decided to build the real thing inspired by the film this year… and yes it looks almost identical, and yes it definitely works.
Panasonic is calling it the “Powered Suit,” which users strap themselves into, and it can be used for lifting objects as heavy as 320 pounds, as well as hammering, digging, and scooping. Developed by Panasonic’s robotics subsidiary, Activelink, the suit – which can run for five hours on a single lithium ion battery charge – moves at speeds up to 5 miles per hour. This is only the first stop on Panasonic’s exoskeleton journey, too – in the future, they’d like to produce suits which could be used in space and in the ocean, as well.
The Powered Suit is expected to go into mass production in 2019, when Panasonic will make an initial run of 1000. They’ll be selling the suits at the actually-pretty-doable price of 500,000 yen – which translates to about $4800 US dollars.
Watch the Video Below:
Identical to the movie…