Motorized legs??

In 2008, Honda Motor Company designed a humanoid robot to help the elderly walk.  This machine helps the elderly who are unable to walk under their own power.  It makes it easier for them to walk up and down stairs as well as for factory workers to maneuver around the workshop.  This is an addition to the first two-legged walking robot ASIMO, which arrived in 2000.   The device only weighs 14.3 pounds and it consists of a saddle, leg-like frames and shoes for the patient to fit snuggly into.  The device is suppose to take stress off of the user’s hips when walking around or climbing up and down the stairs by helping to support the human’s bodyweight, Honda said.  The main target for this robot is those who are rehabilitating their leg muscles and elderly people who have trouble walking.  It also targets the assembly workers who are always in the crouching position and it is suppose to help take the pressure off of their hips and knees. 

The use of the robot is easy.  There are sensors in the shoes that send signals to the knees to know when to bend when walking.  This is the same technology that is in the older version ASIMO.  Although there is no release date for this prototype as of yet, Honda is still debating when they should release it and what price they should set on it.