可穿戴机械 让人类变成钢铁侠

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.

在今年巴西世界杯揭幕战上，开球的是一个名叫朱利亚诺o平托，双腿瘫痪的残疾青年。凭借身上穿戴的一套“外骨骼装置”，他仅靠自己的意念就完成了开球动作——没错，既不靠按钮，也不靠肌肉，而是靠脑电波。

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.

拜脑电图传感器（EEG）所赐，这套装置背后的工程师团队成功开发了一套似乎能够阅读大脑意图的系统。当然，要读懂一个人的心并不容易，所以朱利亚诺o平托必须要学会如何去“想”——他要把这个动作想上一会儿，才能让这套装置明白他的意图。

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.

外骨骼系统一直是漫画书和未来风格电影中不可缺少的元素之一，但现在，它们已不再是一种科学幻想了。根据市场调研公司WinterGreen提供的数据，康复机器人、机械假肢和外骨骼系统的市场价值已经达到4,300万美元，到2020年预计将达到18亿美元。几乎可以肯定，要不了多久，我们就会看到许多人穿戴着各种各样的机械做越来越多的事情。

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.

这并不是说以后你的西装下面也会藏着一套“钢铁侠战衣”（当然你也可以选择这么做）。你需要穿戴哪种机器，很大程度上取决于你需要完成的工作。比如宝马公司(BMW)今年一月宣布，该公司研制了一种新型手套，其主要功能是，在工人往车身框架的排水孔上塞橡胶塞（为了方便喷漆）时，可以减轻手指的压力。虽然这似乎并不是多么惊人的功能，但此类工具的应用只会变得越来越精巧。

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.

外骨骼系统据称是这些工具中最复杂的类别。它们不仅可以让我们更轻易地完成一个简单的动作，而且还有可能帮助我们完成人体能够做到的最复杂的动作。在外骨骼系统的帮助下，残疾人也可以完成并体验之前几乎不可能做到的事，比如走路。另外，外骨骼系统还能帮助健康人（比如士兵）跑得更快、负载更多东西。

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.

不管是简单的还是复杂的，这些机器人设备为什么一夜之间离我们如此之近？说来也奇怪，这恰恰是由于智能手机的崛起，集团首席执行官，Grishin Robotics公司创始人，企业家，投资人德米特里o格里辛这样说道。

“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：“归功于科技革命和智能手机的兴起，很多并非为机器人设计的元件，比如摄像头、传感器、电池和处理器等等，都变得非常便宜了。这从根本上改变了整个行业的面貌。”

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.

外骨骼装置以及其它一些没有那么复杂的可穿戴机械设备，很可能会率先在以下三个市场上出现。它们分别是：医疗设备行业、重工业和军事领域。

Medical

医疗

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.

第一款通过美国食品及药品监督管理局（FDA）认证，供家庭和社区使用的外骨骼系统名叫ReWalk，顾名思义，它的用途是帮助半身不遂者重新站起来。这款由以色列公司生产的外骨骼装置，可以通过判断上半身的动作来完成走、停、坐、上下台阶等动作。临床康复是它的主要卖点之一。

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.

纽约脊椎损伤研究中心（Spinal Cord Damage Research Center）副主任安妮o斯庞根表示，美国约有24万人患有脊椎损伤。在该中心所在地，位于纽约布朗克斯区的退伍军人事务部（Veterans Affairs）里，斯庞根调查了各种外骨骼助步设备的使用情况，其中就包括ReWalk。退伍军人事务部是美国最大的脊椎损伤病人服务机构，为大约22,000名脊椎损伤的退伍军人提供服务（患有这种疾病的退伍军人共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，也有一些其它平台可以为半身不遂者提供帮助，比如Ekso、Indego和 REX Bionics等公司的产品。斯庞根表示：“我的理念是，不拿这些设备进行相互比较，他们都挺好的，各有各的优势。我们需要这一领域不断向前发展，但愿这些制造商都能够更进一步。”

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.)

第一台ReWalk于今年七月被一名患者买回了家，69,500美元的价格可着实不便宜。ReWalk公司CEO拉里o亚辛斯基表示，他认为这种局面短期内可能不会改变。“我们认为这套系统的定价是合理的，而且还为保险业省了不少成本。”他还表示：“如果生产规模扩大，将有助于利润率的提高，从而有助于我们投入更多研发费用对它进行改进，或开发新的应用。”（本周二，ReWalk Robotics公司向纳斯达克提交了IPO招股书，拟上市融资5,000万美元，该公司的估值也将达到1.88亿美金。ReWalk在上市文件中批露，截至目前，该公司已经卖出了81套外骨骼系统。）

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.

与此同时，本田公司(Honda)生产的Walk Assist正在芝加哥康复研究院（Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago）接受测试。（本田公司尚未批露这款设备的零售价。）这款设备是为那些还没有完全失去自主行走能力，但因为某些原因需要辅助的人设计的——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.”

尽管几家公司都拥有不错的发展前景，但格里辛认为，由于医疗行业历来是政府重点监管的对象，可穿戴机械设备的重大突破应该不会首先发生在这个领域。他表示：“创新一般发生在你可以快速行动的领域。我认为这个市场的‘大创新’不会发生在医疗行业。”

Industrial

工业

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.”

有些公司已经发现，可穿戴机械设备可以用来给从事繁重劳动的工人减负。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东西走来走去。本田就是这样一家公司。早在2008年，本田就推出了一款试验性设备。本田北美分公司助理副总裁杰弗里o史密斯表示：“当前最大的挑战是让这款设备能够适用于各种体型。它不光是为上年纪的人设计的，而是为所有人设计的。”

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，材料和电池工艺的进步，对本田开发这款设备起了很重要的作用——不仅因为它延长了电池寿命，同时也保障了它能提供持续一致的功率水平和性能表现。

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，这款试验性设备更加符合“可穿戴机械设备”的称号，因为它为用户提供了额外的肢体，而不是像外骨骼系统那样只是强化现有肢体的力量。为了应对熟手工人老龄化的问题，航空业巨头波音公司(Boeing)委托麻省理工学院（MIT）机械工程师，博士研究生弗雷德里科o帕里亚蒂从事这项研究。

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.

帕里亚蒂和MIT达贝洛夫实验室的其他研究人员发现，波音工厂的许多工作都需要两人合作完成，其中一名工人进行技术工作，另外一个熟手工人几乎只是在打下手，比如扶着某个零件。因此，该团队构建了一个能充当“第三只手”的机器人，它可以从事一些技术性不高的任务，让另一名熟练工人去做更高级的工作。这个团队面临的最大挑战就是软件：由于工厂车间噪音太大了，导致机器人无法接收语音指令，因此它必须学会如何接受熟练工人的指令。

“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.

帕里亚蒂表示：“我们有很多用来记录人体动作的传感器。那么如何从这些数据中判断这个人的意图？”目前这套MIT与波音合作的系统仍在研发中，可能两年后就可投入应用。

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.

意大利比圣安娜高等学校的感知机器人实验室（Percro）推出的Body Extender，是工业应用辅助设备中最复杂的设备之一。这套外骨骼系统看起来有点像漫画书里的未来机甲【让人不由得想起《机动战士高达》(Mobile Suit Gundam Wing)）。该公司称，它可以极大地提高一个人的力量，最高可以提高至10倍，很适合用来搬运一个人抬不动的材料（比如飞机的机身壁板）。

Military

军事

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.

像工业界一样，军队也希望提高士兵的力量。虽然美军对有关信息守口如瓶，但我们现在已经知道，洛克希德马丁公司(Lockheed Martin)正在利用Ekso Bionics公司开发的核心技术，打造一款名叫HULC Robotic的外骨骼系统。【它的发音听起来跟那位令人难以置信的《惊奇漫画》（Marvel Comics）超级英雄恰好是一样的。）这套外骨骼系统是液压系统，由电池提供动力，可以帮助士兵完成蹲下、匍匐等动作，以及负载重达200磅的装备。

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.)

科技开发公司Battelle也与美国特种作战司令部合作，开发了一款所谓的“战术突击轻甲”（Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit）。虽然我们还不大清楚这套盔甲的细节，但是科技网站Gizmodo今年七月有机会近距离接触了这套盔甲，确任了它能够让士兵在负载更多装备的同时，还觉得自己身轻如燕。（那么有了这套“钢铁侠战衣”，他能飞起来吗？或许不能，不过如果他背着50磅的负载还能健步如飞，那也和飞差不了多少了。）

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.

在格里辛看来，军事行业对先进技术的保护过度，从而使这些技术很难流入私人部门用于其它用途。但是军工技术的利润会带来巨额的研发经费，从而有助于开发其他用于民用的应用。因此格里辛对军工技术转入某些领域感到很乐观——比如极限运动也可能需要专用的外骨骼系统。

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?

在某种意义上，从简单的工具到复杂的外骨骼系统，可穿戴机械设备意味着一种新的技术平台即将粉墨登场。这些设备将使人们——还包括管理他们的企业和机构——采用更大的力量、精确性和计算性能来从事高难度任务。工业革命和信息时代使人类在机器面前越来越被边缘化，那么让人穿上“机械战甲”，会不会让我们重回时代的舞台中央？