Honda Robotic Legs.

Offering up a completely different take on cutting-edge technology contributing to the advancement of human mobility assistance, Japanese car manufacturing titan Honda has revealed a wearable solution that users ride while walking.
Appearing much like a bicycle seat standing atop a futuristic pair of oddly angled mechanical legs, the experimental assisted-walking gadget attaches to the user’s shoes and provides support through the seat for both body weight and joint stress reduction.
Unveiled this past Friday, Tokyo-based Honda Motor Company sees the gadget as being potentially viable for workers on its car-making production lines, or by workers at a wide variety of other manufacturing facilities.
Case in point, to demonstrate the assisted-walking technology in action, Honda showcased a video of employees wearing and walking the contraption in order to navigate a production line and even peer beneath cars.
Capable of helping its wearer to walk up stairs and comfortably remain in crouched positions, Honda engineer Jun Ashihara also claimed the device will be useful for people who stand all day and also those who are constantly mobile or making deliveries.
“This should be as easy to use as a bicycle,” said Ashihara in an AP report. “It reduces stress, and you should feel less tired.”
The assisted-walking technology comes complete with an on-board computer, motor, gears, a battery, and embedded sensors designed to respond to the wearer’s movements by pushing upward on steps to deliver powered momentum. When squatting, the device similarly pushes against the wearer’s bottom in order to provide a platform of stability.
According to Honda, it plans to gather valuable user feedback by introducing prototype testing onto one of its production lines before the end of November. Pricing and full commercial availability has not yet been confirmed.
Beyond the obvious benefits associated with assisted-walking technology in fabrication facilities, Lindsay Scott of Help the Aged commented that Honda’s vision appears to be “a hugely exciting development.”
“The Japanese are at the forefront of this kind of technology as Japan has one of the most rapidly ageing societies in the world and it'll be fascinating to see how this develops,” she said to The Scotsman.