Hardiman was the first attempt to build a practical

powered exoskeleton An exoskeleton is a wearable device that augments, enables, assists, or enhances motion, posture, or physical activity through mechanical interaction with and force applied to the user’s body. Other common names for a wearable exoskeleton in ...

, by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

between 1965 and 1971. The machine was intended to allow the wearer to lift loads of 1500 pounds (680 kg) with ease. The project was led by the

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

Ralph Mosher, who had previously worked on the

Handyman A handyman, also known as a fixer, handyperson or handyworker, maintenance worker, maintenance man, repairman, repair worker, or repair technician, is a person who is knowledgeable in skills such as basic carpentry, plumbing, minor electrical w ...

. The project was not successful overall. Any attempt to use the full

exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the internal organs, in contrast to an internal endoskeleton (e.g. human skeleton, that ...

resulted in a violent uncontrolled motion, and as a result, the exoskeleton was never turned on with a person inside. Mosher wrote of these difficulties in designing a powerful machine functioning as an extension of the human body, noting that a machine lacking the ability to receive and interpret force feedback would be very likely to cause the machine to destroy whatever object it was interacting with in performing the task at hand. According to General Electric's Hardiman Project Report from 1969, "When turned on power to operate the shoulder joint, the arm lurched and the elbow would not operate."Haridman I Arm Test
Hardiman I Prototype Project, December 31, 1969 Further research concentrated on one arm. Although it could lift its specified load of 750 pounds (340 kg), it weighed three quarters of a ton, just over twice the liftable load. Without getting all the components to work together the practical uses for the Hardiman project were limited.

References

External links

Do You Even Lift, Bro? Hardiman Was GE’s Muscular Take On The Human-Machine Interface
GE Reports, August 25, 2016.
General Electric: The Story Behind the Real ‘Iron Man’ Suit
. GE Reports, November 23, 2010.
Hardiman I Project. Report. (1 May 1971)
Robotic exoskeletons 1960s robots Robots of the United States {{robo-stub