Robots could one day give factory workers super strength

Super strength has long been a dream limited to comic books and sci-fi movies. But a robotic exoskeleton designed to help factory workers lift heavy equipment is getting closer to completion, and could make super strength an ordinary part of factory life.

Robo-Mate, the company behind the exoskeleton, showed off a working prototype for the first time last week. The company is made of 12 different European Union entities such as universities or research facilities, which come together to make what's often punishingly hard factory work much easier.
A worker wears the machine on their back and attaches their arms to the two metallic arms protruding from the side. It makes the wearer look a bit like a spider (or like Doc Ock, the Spiderman villain). The machine carries an array of sensors that know when to help you lift something heavy. The arms could make workers up to ten times stronger, so a car seat that weighs 30 pounds would feel like it weighs just three while using the exoskeleton.