Exoskeletons Week!

Pacific Rim Uprising returns giant piloted mecha and exoskeletons back to the public eye. My article on Pacific Rim and exoskeletons for Science Robotics will be out on March 29th, where I discuss how the giant robots in the Pacific Rim movies could take lessons from advances in legged robots and from real-world exoskeletons being designed to prevent worker injuries, accelerate physical therapy, and help paralyzed children walk. Of course Pacific Rim focuses on battle suit types of exoskeletons but power assist exoskeletons for workers and orthotic exoskeletons for the injured may turn out to be the most common. This week we will explore exoskeletons in science as well as exoskeletons in science fiction, starting with a review of The Themis Files to follow shortly.