外骨骼設備是如何幫助日本勞動力的

外骨骼設備是如何幫助日本勞動力的

An aging population with fewer young people is an issue many countries will be dealing with in the coming decades, but Japan has already reached this milestone. About 26 percent of Japan's population is over the age of 65.

未來幾十年，許多國家都將面臨人口老齡化和年輕人減少的問題，但日本已經達到了這一里程碑。日本大約26%的人口年齡在65歲以上。

An exoskeleton suit or device helps workers lift and carry objects more easily and with less risk of injury. (Photo: MONOPOLY919/Shutterstock)

Much has been written about the negative consequences of these changing demographics, but some of the reasons behind the change — far fewer teenage pregnancies, and people actively choosing the number of kids that works for them (which might be none at all) — are positive.

關于人口結構變化帶來的負面影響已經有很多論述，但這種變化背后的一些原因——少女懷孕率大幅下降，以及人們積極選擇適合自己的孩子數(shù)量(可能一個都沒有)——是積極的。

So maybe we simply need to get creative and figure out how to meet the challenges of an aging population. Any major population shift will create opportunities as well as difficulties. One of them could be that older people will work longer — something that many older people want anyway, especially as people remain healthier for longer. In Japan, the current age for retirement is 60, but there's a proposal to raise it to 70, to make up for the labor shortfall.

因此，也許我們只是需要發(fā)揮創(chuàng)造力，想出應對人口老齡化挑戰(zhàn)的辦法。任何重大的人口轉移都會帶來機會和困難。其中之一可能是老年人將工作更長時間——這是許多老年人無論如何都想要的，特別是當人們保持健康的時間更長時。在日本，目前的退休年齡是60歲，但有人提議將退休年齡提高到70歲，以彌補勞動力短缺。

Working longer when doing sedentary work might not be a big deal for many people, but what about manual labor? A new, creative solution for older workers is a tech fix that can make physical labor a lot easier.

對很多人來說，長時間坐著工作可能沒什么大不了，但體力勞動呢?針對年長員工的一種新的、有創(chuàng)意的解決方案是一種可以讓體力勞動變得容易得多的技術解決方案。

Exoskeletons, worn like a backpack, can help people lift weight more easily, by taking some of the strain of lifting from the back and distributing it more evenly, as well as actually assisting with the lift. Just as animals with exoskeletons are able to lift many times their body weight (think of ants), distributing weight externally can help humans do the same.

外骨骼，就像一個背包，可以幫助人們更容易地舉起重量，通過從背部減輕一些舉重的壓力，并更均勻地分布它，以及實際上幫助提升。就像有外骨骼的動物能夠舉起很多倍于它們體重的東西(比如螞蟻)一樣，把重量分布在外部也可以幫助人類做到這一點。

Innophys is just one of the companies that makes these devices, and it offers four different styles. The lightest one, the Edge, helps lift up to 56 pounds. Some styles use a manual (hand-pumped) compressed air function that works as additional lifting "muscle" while other models just make lifting easier with structural support.

Innophys只是生產這些設備的公司之一，它提供四種不同的樣式。最輕的Edge能舉起56磅的重量。一些款式使用手動(手動泵送)壓縮空氣功能，作為額外的提升“肌肉”，而其他型號只是使提升更容易與結構支持。

"One client is a family-owned company which makes and sells pickled radish and uses heavyweights in the process of production," Daigo Orihara, a spokesperson for Innophys, told New Scientist magazine. "The father is in his 70s and was supposed to retire but is still working with our muscle suit."

Innophys的發(fā)言人Daigo Orihara告訴《新科學家》雜志:“一個客戶是一家生產和銷售腌制蘿卜的家族企業(yè)，在生產過程中使用了重金屬。”“父親已經70多歲了，本來應該退休的，但他還在用我們的肌肉套裝工作。”

These devices aren't cheap — the Edge is $4,500 and other models cost more than $6,000, but that's a lot less expensive than getting an injury and/or being out of work. Of course, plenty of people are using these exoskeletons who aren't even elderly, like people who work in factories and nurses or elder-care workers who need to lift patients.

這些設備并不便宜——Edge的價格是4500美元，其他型號的價格超過6000美元，但這比受傷或失業(yè)要便宜得多。當然，很多人都在使用這些外骨骼，他們甚至都不是上了年紀的人，比如在工廠工作的人、護士或需要扶病人的老年護理人員。