Soon, You Might Be Able to Don A Robotic Exoskeleton Like Lex Luthor

Remember Lex Luthor’s exoskeleton suit, warsuit, or whatever you want to call it? Of course, it has different looks and features, depending on the storyline, but the idea is the same: it gives him superhuman powers.

Now what if that became a reality? It’s not that unthinkable, really, what with the progress being made in robotics; and indeed, we might be one (or two, or three) steps closer to the reality of a robotic exoskeleton.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, at their facility in Okpo-dong, South Korea, have created such a robotic exoskeleton device that gives its workers to have superhuman strength. They only have a prototype for now, but tests show that anyone using the robotic exoskeleton can carry weights far heavier than an ordinary human could.

I know that may not look too impressive, certainly far from Lex Luthor’s impressive array of warsuits, and even not a fraction of impressivness as Batman’s arsenal, but if you think about it, this is huge!

NewScientist reports that the robotic exoskeleton developed by Daewoo’s research and development arm can be used by any individual who is between 160 and 185 centimetres (5.2 to 6 feet) tall. The frame is made of carbon and weighs 28 kilograms, which sounds heavy to me, although the workers who have tried it say they don’t feel hampered by the weight.

To function the robotic exoskeleton needs a battery, which has a life of 3 hours. There is certainly more room for improvement, but with people being able to carry as much as 30 kilograms without feeling the strain, it’s all pretty impressive, don’t you think?

Would you wear such a thing? I sure would!