Iron Man suit in movie may look cooler than real-life version

Two researchers at the PLA Information Engineering University test how to control robots with the "mind". Shen Xiang / For China Daily

In the Iron Man movies, businessman Tony Stark uses a robotic suit that gives him inexhaustible power to fight bad guys. In reality, the suit used is so heavy and unwieldy that actor Don Cheadle, who donned the costume in Iron Man 3, complained that it was "not cool at all" to play a superhero.

Scientists in Jiangsu province say they have developed a flexible and controllable "suit" that moves as nimbly as a mind controls the limbs.

The Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technology in Changzhou has completed an exoskeleton that can help the wearer climb a mountain carrying 30 kilograms of gear or punch through a wall without breaking a sweat.

The exoskeleton does not have the "cool" appearance of the Hollywood character, looking more like an iron skeleton with a bevy of sensors and electric wires. When worn these sensors catch every move's neuromuscular signals and respond with the right action.

"The potential application is wide," says Wang Yucheng, an assistant researcher at the institute, which is a unit of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Hefei Institutes of Physical Science and focuses on robotics and intelligent manufacturing.

At a Brain-Inspired Intelligence Forum in June, Tan Tieniu, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, "Artificial intelligence will bring us into the second machine age - an age featuring exponential growth, digitization and combined innovation."

One of the uses of such an exoskeleton could be to increase the fighting capacity of a soldier. For example, the Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory at the University of California, Berkley, has been researching exoskeletons since early 2000 and has developed a range of products for military use.

The Human Universal Load Carrier can carry up to 90 kilograms while the wearer feels no weight, while the ExoHiker can enable the wearer to carry a 70-kg load and walk for 21 hours.

Besides military uses, superman abilities are also desired in emergency situations such as fire-fighting and earthquake rescues. "If a firefighter runs into a burning building wearing an exoskeleton, he or she can carry out two or more unconscious people, instead of carrying out one and heading into the danger again," Wang says.

Exoskeletons could also help some disabled people to walk or make movements, such as kicking a ball.