可穿戴機械 讓人類變成鋼鐵俠

At this year’s FIFA World Cup, the first kick was delivered by a man with paralyzed legs, Juliano Pinto. He was wearing an elaborate exoskeleton suit that enabled him to, remarkably, tap a soccer ball with his foot using only his mind—no buttons, no muscles, just brainwaves.

在今年巴西世界盃揭幕戰上，開球的是一個名叫朱利亞諾o平託，雙腿癱瘓的殘疾青年。憑藉身上穿戴的一套“外骨骼裝置”，他僅靠自己的意念就完成了開球動作——沒錯，既不靠按鈕，也不靠肌肉，而是靠腦電波。

The engineers behind the suit had developed a system that appears to read the brain’s intentions courtesy of electroencephalographic, or EEG, sensors. It’s not that simple to read someone’s mind, of course, so Pinto had to learn to think—ponder that one for a moment—in such a way that would give the suit orders it could understand.

拜腦電圖傳感器（EEG）所賜，這套裝置背後的工程師團隊成功開發了一套似乎能夠閱讀大腦意圖的系統。當然，要讀懂一個人的心並不容易，所以朱利亞諾o平託必須要學會如何去“想”——他要把這個動作想上一會兒，才能讓這套裝置明白他的意圖。

Exoskeletons have long been a fixture of comic books and futuristic movies, but they aren’t science fiction any more. According to the market research firm WinterGreen Research, the market for rehabilitation robots, active prostheses, and exoskeletons is already worth $43 million and is projected to reach $1.8 billion by 2020. That many people will soon wear different kinds of machines to get more work done is, at this point, nearly a given.

外骨骼系統一直是漫畫書和未來風格電影中不可缺少的元素之一，但現在，它們已不再是一種科學幻想了。根據市場調研公司WinterGreen提供的數據，康復機器人、機械假肢和外骨骼系統的市場價值已經達到4,300萬美元，到2020年預計將達到18億美元。幾乎可以肯定，要不了多久，我們就會看到許多人穿戴着各種各樣的機械做越來越多的事情。

That’s not to say that you will have motors and gears hidden inside your chalk-stripe suit. (Well, you might.) The type of machine to use will largely depend on the type of work to accomplish. For example, BMW announced in January the creation of a new glove that takes the stress off of a single action—inserting a rubber plug in a car’s frame to close drain holes for the paint coat—for workers in its factories. A modest start, sure, but the applications for such tools will only become more elaborate.

這並不是說以後你的西裝下面也會藏着一套“鋼鐵俠戰衣”（當然你也可以選擇這麼做）。你需要穿戴哪種機器，很大程度上取決於你需要完成的工作。比如寶馬公司(BMW)今年一月宣佈，該公司研製了一種新型手套，其主要功能是，在工人往車身框架的排水孔上塞橡膠塞（爲了方便噴漆）時，可以減輕手指的壓力。雖然這似乎並不是多麼驚人的功能，但此類工具的應用只會變得越來越精巧。

Exoskeletons are arguably the most complex category of these tools. They don’t just promise to make it easier to complete a simple action; they promise to support or accomplish some of the most complicated maneuvers our bodies are capable of. With exoskeletons, people with disabilities can do and experience much more than they might have otherwise had reason to believe possible, such as walking. Exoskeletons also promise to allow able-bodied people, such as soldiers, run faster and carry more than the average human body otherwise would.

外骨骼系統據稱是這些工具中最複雜的類別。它們不僅可以讓我們更輕易地完成一個簡單的動作，而且還有可能幫助我們完成人體能夠做到的最複雜的動作。在外骨骼系統的幫助下，殘疾人也可以完成並體驗之前幾乎不可能做到的事，比如走路。另外，外骨骼系統還能幫助健康人（比如士兵）跑得更快、負載更多東西。

Simple or complex, why are all of these robotic devices suddenly possible? Oddly enough, it’s because of the rise of the smartphone, says Dmitry Grishin, an entrepreneur and investor who serves as chief executive of Group and founded Grishin Robotics.

不管是簡單的還是複雜的，這些機器人設備爲什麼一夜之間離我們如此之近？說來也奇怪，這恰恰是由於智能手機的崛起，集團首席執行官，Grishin Robotics公司創始人，企業家，投資人德米特里o格里辛這樣說道。

“Right now, because of the revolution in technology and smartphones. a lot of components that weren’t designed for robots—cameras, sensors, batteries, processors, and all of that—have become really cheap,” he says. “And that has completely changed the whole industry.”

他指出：“歸功於科技革命和智能手機的興起，很多並非爲機器人設計的元件，比如攝像頭、傳感器、電池和處理器等等，都變得非常便宜了。這從根本上改變了整個行業的面貌。”

There are three markets where exoskeletons and their less sophisticated siblings are most likely to first appear: the Medical devices industry, heavy industry, and the military. Here’s a look at each.

外骨骼裝置以及其它一些沒有那麼複雜的可穿戴機械設備，很可能會率先在以下三個市場上出現。它們分別是：醫療設備行業、重工業和軍事領域。

Medical

醫療

The first medical device to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for home and community use by paraplegics is called the ReWalk, an Israeli-made exoskeleton that takes cues from upper body movements to take steps, stop, and sit down. Clinical rehabilitation is one of its major selling points.

第一款通過美國食品及藥品監督管理局（FDA）認證，供家庭和社區使用的外骨骼系統名叫ReWalk，顧名思義，它的用途是幫助半身不遂者重新站起來。這款由以色列公司生產的外骨骼裝置，可以通過判斷上半身的動作來完成走、停、坐、上下臺階等動作。臨牀康復是它的主要賣點之一。

There are something like 240,000 people with spinal cord damage in the U.S., says Anne Spungen, associate director of the Spinal Cord Damage Research Center in New York. Spungen has investigated the uses of exoskeletal walking devices, including the ReWalk, at the Veterans Affairs facility in the Bronx where the center is located. The VA is the largest provider of services to people with spinal cord injury in the United States, serving approximately 22,000 of the 42,000 veterans with the injuries.

紐約脊椎損傷研究中心（Spinal Cord Damage Research Center）副主任安妮o斯龐根表示，美國約有24萬人患有脊椎損傷。在該中心所在地，位於紐約布朗克斯區的退伍軍人事務部（Veterans Affairs）裏，斯龐根調查了各種外骨骼助步設備的使用情況，其中就包括ReWalk。退伍軍人事務部是美國最大的脊椎損傷病人服務機構，爲大約22,000名脊椎損傷的退伍軍人提供服務（患有這種疾病的退伍軍人共42,000名）。

There are several other platforms for paraplegics besides the ReWalk, including the Ekso, Indego, and REX Bionics. “My motto is not to compare these devices to each other. They are all good in some way,” Spungen says. “We need the field to advance. We need them all to come forward.”

除了ReWalk之外，也有一些其它平臺可以爲半身不遂者提供幫助，比如Ekso、Indego和 REX Bionics等公司的產品。斯龐根表示：“我的理念是，不拿這些設備進行相互比較，他們都挺好的，各有各的優勢。我們需要這一領域不斷向前發展，但願這些製造商都能夠更進一步。”

The first patient took a ReWalk home in July. It’s not cheap. The price for one is $69,500, and ReWalk CEO Larry Jasinski says he doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon. “We believe the system pricing is fair and that it is a net cost-saver to the insuring community,” he says. “Scale will help margins which will allow more focus or spending on R&D for improvements and new applications.” (On Tuesday, ReWalk Robotics set the terms for a $50 million IPO on Nasdaq, valuing the company at $188 million. In its filing, it revealed that it has sold 81 systems to date.)

第一臺ReWalk於今年七月被一名患者買回了家，69,500美元的價格可着實不便宜。ReWalk公司CEO拉里o亞辛斯基表示，他認爲這種局面短期內可能不會改變。“我們認爲這套系統的定價是合理的，而且還爲保險業省了不少成本。”他還表示：“如果生產規模擴大，將有助於利潤率的提高，從而有助於我們投入更多研發費用對它進行改進，或開發新的應用。”（本週二，ReWalk Robotics公司向納斯達克提交了IPO招股書，擬上市融資5,000萬美元，該公司的估值也將達到1.88億美金。ReWalk在上市文件中批露，截至目前，該公司已經賣出了81套外骨骼系統。）

Another device, Honda’s Walk Assist, is currently under trial at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. (The Japanese company has yet to disclose an expected retail price.) The device is built for fully ambulatory people who may need assistance for one reason or another, such as the elderly.

與此同時，本田公司(Honda)生產的Walk Assist正在芝加哥康復研究院（Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago）接受測試。（本田公司尚未批露這款設備的零售價。）這款設備是爲那些還沒有完全失去自主行走能力，但因爲某些原因需要輔助的人設計的——比如老年人。

Despite the promising start, Grishin believes the regulated nature of the medical market makes it unlikely that breakthroughs will happen there. “Innovation happens when you can move very quickly,” he says. “I think the big innovation in this market will not come from medical.”

儘管幾家公司都擁有不錯的發展前景，但格里辛認爲，由於醫療行業歷來是政府重點監管的對象，可穿戴機械設備的重大突破應該不會首先發生在這個領域。他表示：“創新一般發生在你可以快速行動的領域。我認爲這個市場的‘大創新’不會發生在醫療行業。”

Industrial

工業

A number of companies see opportunity in using robotics to ease strain on factory workers who, for example, need to squat repeatedly throughout the day or bear weight while walking. Honda is one of them, and introduced an experimental device for the purpose in 2008. “At the moment, the biggest engineering challenge is in ensuring that the device will work the same way for every body type that may need to use it,” says Jeffrey Smith, an assistant vice president at Honda of North America. “This is not just a device made for the elderly, but it was designed with all of society in mind.”

有些公司已經發現，可穿戴機械設備可以用來給從事繁重勞動的工人減負。比如有些工人整天需要不停地蹲下再站起，或者要每天要扛很重的東西走來走去。本田就是這樣一家公司。早在2008年，本田就推出了一款試驗性設備。本田北美分公司助理副總裁傑弗裏o史密斯表示：“當前最大的挑戰是讓這款設備能夠適用於各種體型。它不光是爲上年紀的人設計的，而是爲所有人設計的。”

Smith said that advances in materials and battery technology have been important in the development of Honda’s device—not just for extending its battery life but in providing consistent power levels and performance.

史密斯表示，材料和電池工藝的進步，對本田開發這款設備起了很重要的作用——不僅因爲它延長了電池壽命，同時也保障了它能提供持續一致的功率水平和性能表現。

Another, experimental device is more of a wearable robot than an exoskeleton in that it gives its user additional limbs rather than increasing his or her strength. FredericoParietti, a mechanical engineer and doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is working on research commissioned by the aerospace company Boeing, which faces the problem of its highly-skilled factory workforce aging.

此外，這款試驗性設備更加符合“可穿戴機械設備”的稱號，因爲它爲用戶提供了額外的肢體，而不是像外骨骼系統那樣只是強化現有肢體的力量。爲了應對熟手工人老齡化的問題，航空業巨頭波音公司(Boeing)委託麻省理工學院（MIT）機械工程師，博士研究生弗雷德里科o帕里亞蒂從事這項研究。

Parietti and other researchers at MIT’s d’Arbeloff Laboratory observed that many Boeing factory jobs were two-person jobs where one worker performed skilled work while another well-trained worker merely assisted, such as holding an object in place. The team began building a robot that could work as a set of extra limbs and perform the less-skilled tasks in a two-person job, freeing up the other skilled worker to do higher-level work. The team’s biggest challenge is software: the robot can’t take voice commands because the factory floor is too noisy, and so must learn to take the lead from the skilled worker.

帕里亞蒂和MIT達貝洛夫實驗室的其他研究人員發現，波音工廠的許多工作都需要兩人合作完成，其中一名工人進行技術工作，另外一個熟手工人幾乎只是在打下手，比如扶着某個零件。因此，該團隊構建了一個能充當“第三隻手”的機器人，它可以從事一些技術性不高的任務，讓另一名熟練工人去做更高級的工作。這個團隊面臨的最大挑戰就是軟件：由於工廠車間噪音太大了，導致機器人無法接收語音指令，因此它必須學會如何接受熟練工人的指令。

“We have so many sensors that are recording human motion,” Parietti says. “So how do you extract from those data what is the human’s intention?” The MIT-Boeing system is still in development and may be ready for deployment in two years.

帕里亞蒂表示：“我們有很多用來記錄人體動作的傳感器。那麼如何從這些數據中判斷這個人的意圖？”目前這套MIT與波音合作的系統仍在研發中，可能兩年後就可投入應用。

Among the most complex assist devices for industrial use is the Body Extender, the work of the Perceptual Robotics Laboratory (better known as Percro) at the ScuolaSuperioreSant’Anna near Pisa, Italy. The exoskeleton, which resembles the futuristic machinery in comic books (Mobile Suit Gundam Wing comes to mind), is designed to greatly increase a person’s strength—up to 10 times, according to the company, which would benefit the handling of materials (e.g. aircraft fuselage panels) too heavy for a single human to carry or position.

意大利比聖安娜高等學校的感知機器人實驗室（Percro）推出的Body Extender，是工業應用輔助設備中最複雜的設備之一。這套外骨骼系統看起來有點像漫畫書裏的未來機甲【讓人不由得想起《機動戰士高達》(Mobile Suit Gundam Wing)）。該公司稱，它可以極大地提高一個人的力量，最高可以提高至10倍，很適合用來搬運一個人擡不動的材料（比如飛機的機身壁板）。

Military

軍事

Like industry, the military wants strength for its skilled workers. Information about these devices is tightly guarded, but it’s known that what is now Ekso Bionics developed the core technology that Lockheed Martin is using to build the HULC Robotic Exoskeleton (its name is pronounced like the incredible Marvel Comics superhero), a battery-powered, hydraulic system that helps a soldier squat, crawl, and lift while carrying pack loads of up to 200 lbs.

像工業界一樣，軍隊也希望提高士兵的力量。雖然美軍對有關信息守口如瓶，但我們現在已經知道，洛克希德馬丁公司(Lockheed Martin)正在利用Ekso Bionics公司開發的核心技術，打造一款名叫HULC Robotic的外骨骼系統。【它的發音聽起來跟那位令人難以置信的《驚奇漫畫》（Marvel Comics）超級英雄恰好是一樣的。）這套外骨骼系統是液壓系統，由電池提供動力，可以幫助士兵完成蹲下、匍匐等動作，以及負載重達200磅的裝備。

Similarly, Battelle, the science and technology development company, is working with the U.S. Special Operations Command to develop what it calls the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit. Not much is known about the Talos suit, but the technology site Gizmodo got a good look at the helmet in July, confirming an intention to use technology to pack more gear on a soldier’s body and make it feel like he or she is carrying less than ever. (Will he ever fly? Probably not, but if he can run at length with fifty pounds of dead weight on his body, close enough.)

科技開發公司Battelle也與美國特種作戰司令部合作，開發了一款所謂的“戰術突擊輕甲”（Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit）。雖然我們還不大清楚這套盔甲的細節，但是科技網站Gizmodo今年七月有機會近距離接觸了這套盔甲，確任了它能夠讓士兵在負載更多裝備的同時，還覺得自己身輕如燕。（那麼有了這套“鋼鐵俠戰衣”，他能飛起來嗎？或許不能，不過如果他揹着50磅的負載還能健步如飛，那也和飛差不了多少了。）

In Grishin’s view, the military will be too protective about what it develops for its advances to trickle into the private sector for use in other applications. But profits in military technology are a good source for R&D funds for other applications that could reach consumers, he says, and for that reason Grishin is optimistic that gear-heads in certain areas—say, extreme sports—will demand exoskeletons of their own.

在格里辛看來，軍事行業對先進技術的保護過度，從而使這些技術很難流入私人部門用於其它用途。但是軍工技術的利潤會帶來鉅額的研發經費，從而有助於開發其他用於民用的應用。因此格里辛對軍工技術轉入某些領域感到很樂觀——比如極限運動也可能需要專用的外骨骼系統。

From simplified tools to fully developed exoskeletons, wearable robotics are in a sense the debut of a new technological platform. The devices promise to allow individuals—and by extension, the companies and organizations that manage them—to perform tasks with more strength, precision, and computational capacity. The Industrial Revolution and the Information Age each threatened to cut humans out of the picture in the name of efficiency. What if combining them puts us right back in the center?

在某種意義上，從簡單的工具到複雜的外骨骼系統，可穿戴機械設備意味着一種新的技術平臺即將粉墨登場。這些設備將使人們——還包括管理他們的企業和機構——採用更大的力量、精確性和計算性能來從事高難度任務。工業革命和信息時代使人類在機器面前越來越被邊緣化，那麼讓人穿上“機械戰甲”，會不會讓我們重回時代的舞臺中央？