Those of you who have seen the movie Aliens will be familiar with the power loader from the 1986 futuristic space horror classic. Used to move heavy equipment (and fight off intergalactic space parasites – Ed) the device has been unintentionally recreated in South Korea.
However, these exoskeletons are part of a test by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, one of the largest ship building companies in the world. The wearable robotic suits are made of light-weight aluminium alloy and steel and are engineered to follow the wearer’s movements.
Straps at the feet, thigh, waist and chest connect the user to the suit and allow the exoskeleton to move with the wearer and bear the heavy loads. A system consisting of hydraulic joints and small electric motors runs along the outside of the leg linking to a backpack, which powers and controls the rig.
The world’s top three shipbuilding firms are South Korean – Daewoo, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries. Their shipyards are already renowned for their high level of automation in which robots run a large portion of a hugely complex assembly system. These suits seem to be the next step.
Understandably, European Automation doesn’t supply its customers with such sophisticated robot exoskeletons. (Demand just isn’t there, but if you want one get in touch – they will see what they can do). However, they do supply the kinds of high precision actuators, gears and motors that you are likely to find in them.
From the initial supply of power in the electric motor and its control in the inverter, through the transmission of that power in the gearbox and finally its application through the actuator, European Automation are on hand to help you with all of the components you might need in an industrial robot arm.
However, many of their customers use similar components in a host of other industries – from motors and inverters in elevation and gearing systems in aerospace and defence applications to actuators in the food and beverage and pharmaceutical sectors.
They also supply industrial robots on a smaller scale, like SCARA (Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm), six axis and Cartesian robots. These are used in everything from electronics manufacture to the process industries, including plastics, metalworking and energy. Such machines provide incredible payload, accuracy and repeatability as well as simple programming and easy use.
Speaking of payload, in their current prototype stage Daewoo’s exoskeletons can help ship workers lift up to 30kg, but the creators believe that they can increase that to a potential 100kg. No word on them being capable of fighting space parasites yet though.
