- The suit, equipped with Panasonic’s own motor and batteries, can operate up to eight hours on a single charge. The price will be around 1 million yen ($8,090). The Osaka-based company also plans to offer leasing for around 50,000 yen a month. Panasonic hopes to sell as many as 1,000 suits a year.
- Panasonic is also working on a next generation of wearable robots for release by 2020, aiming at boosting lifting capacity to 80kg. Activelink, a start-up launched by Panasonic in 2003, is responsible for development of the robot suits.
- The market for wearable robots is still in its infancy, but competition is heating up with such entrants as start-up Cyberdyne – best known for its products for nursing care and medical use – and farm equipment maker Kubota. Demand is expected to grow as corporations increasingly consider robots amid a labor shortage.