The Powered exoskeleton is a good case of life imitation art. Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel starship trooper describe warriors in powered suits. The idea was used again in the marvel comic Iron Man, with a man inside a powerful homemade iron suit. The idea struck a chord, and General Electric took up the task of turning it into reality . By 1995 they had produced
"Hardiman" , the first powered exoskeleton.
The idea behind the device was to produce a robot that reacted to the natural muscle movement of the wearer. It was designed to act like a "second skin " , albeit one that weighed as much as a car. Hardiman was a 3/4 ton monster, designed to lift 1500 pounds (680 kg) . Unfortunately the team never managed to get Hardiman working. any attempt to power up the full frame caused a "violent and uncontrolled movement " , and as such, the machine was never fully turned on with a person inside. One arm of the behemoth did work, lifting 750 pounds (340 kg) as challenges in making such a monster work in a controlled way, without crushing the human inside made it impossible to build a practical product
