Here's That Extra Pair of Robot Arms You've Always Wanted
From: IEEE Spectrum - 06/02/2014
By: Evan Ackerman

Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRLs) are robotic limbs that, when worn, give
you more limbs than you'd normally have. In other words, they're not robotic
limbs designed to replace biological limbs that you might be missing, but
rather robotic limbs designed to augment the number of limbs that you have
already.

MIT researchers have been developing SRLs that can help you do stuff that
would be annoying, uncomfortable, or impossible to do on your own. Today at
the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Hong
Kong, they presented their latest SRL prototypes, with one model featuring a
pair of limbs that spring from your shoulders and another with limbs that
extend from your waist.

MIT's shoulder-mounted SRL is designed to assist in tasks that take place
over your head, or in situations where your other two arms are busy and you
need a hand (literally) with something. One example would be in a
construction context, where anything that needs to be attached to a ceiling
has to be held up and hammered or screwed into place at the same time.

Read the entire article and view videos (0:18 and 0:34) at:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/heres-that-extra-pair-of-robot-arms-youve-always-wanted/

Link:
Prosthetics
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/prosthetics#prosthetics/?media=all&offset=0&sortby=desc

Exoskeletons
http://spectrum.ieee.org/tag/exoskeletons#exoskeletons/?media=all&offset=0&sortby=desc

Raytheon Sarcos's Exoskeleton Nears Production
http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/innovation/raytheon-sarcoss-exoskeleton-nears-production

SRL Concept and Design 
http://darbelofflab.mit.edu/?q=node/22

MIT Develops Wearable Robotic Arms
http://www.roboticstrends.com/service_healthcare/article/mit_develops_wearable_robotic_arms/?utm_source=RoboTrendsWeekly