Soon, factory workers can get super-human strength

Workers at Tata Steel will soon be able to lift heavy equipment that was humanly impossible until now. Similarly, an employee at the Tata Motors plant could work for longer hours without becoming tired.

Thanks to a joint project by Tata Sons and Harvard University, the workers in Tata-owned factories will be able to use wearable technology, such as a glove or an entire body suit, that will enable them to do more.

The project is in pilot phase. Speaking to BusinessLine , Gopichand Katragadda, Group Chief Technology Officer at Tata Sons, said, “We are looking at it as the next generation factory... The approach is to wear a suit to do certain tasks more effectively. Because it is soft sensors, you can do operations that you wouldn’t do with other robotic means.”

Using actuators The technology uses actuators, which is typically used in a machine for moving or controlling a system. For example, an actuator placed on the elbow helps in enhancing the movement of the entire arm.

Until now such technologies have only been the topic of science fiction or superhero stories like the Iron Man . Researchers at Harvard University have now developed a way with which a wearable robot can be created in reality using softer materials such as textile, spandex and silicon instead of steel to make the suit almost as light and comfortable as regular clothing. Conor Walsh, Professor at Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, told BusinessLine that he along with another Harvard professor Rob Wood have so far been using soft robotics to help people suffering from stroke and those with injuries to their spinal cord walk and use their hands and legs again.

The researchers are now using the same technology to help factory workers perform dexterous and labour-intensive tasks with up to 50 per cent more efficiency.

The suit, a working prototype of which has already been prepared by Walsh and his team, will not cost a lot more than regular clothing and could be commercialised for other purposes such as medical assistance once ready, Katragadda said. He added that the wearable tech will not replace existing workers or traditional robots but improve the efficiency of various tasks irrespective of the skillsets of a factory worker.

“Before power steering, only people with strength were able to drive trucks. With power steering anyone can be a truck driver because there’s some assistance.

The level of assistance of a power steering may not be large but the level of enablement you get out of it is,” Walsh explained.

Cost-effective Tata Sons will also be using the technology to bring down the overall cost of automation. “In order to be disruptive, the cost of automation should come down,” Katragadda said.

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