“Working at a shipyard is hard work — but it might get a little easier.
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) on Aug. 19 announced it had received a contract from the National Center for Manufacturing for the U.S. Navy to evaluate two of its Fortis exoskeletons. And on Sept. 11, Lockheed did a demo of the exoskeleton for me and OBJ photographer Jim Carchidi.
The system weighs about 30 pounds and can be used with tools weighing up to 36 pounds, like the red claw-shaped riveter we saw. Lockheed Martin Senior Capture Manager Keith Maxwell strapped himself into the exoskeleton and gave us a demonstration.
So what’s been the reaction from the workers who have been trying it out? Maxwell said that the average age of a shipyard worker is about 50.
“I think my favorite was the team who started dancing the Macarena,” Maxwell said. “It makes their lives a whole lot easier. What they’re telling me is they spend the rest of day on the couch recovering and getting ready for the next day. After using this, when we see the fatigue levels being somewhere about 20 percent of what they are un-augmented. These guys go home and they have a life again.”
The process is pretty straight forward: Put on the exoskeleton, put on the spring-loaded arm, attach the tool to the arm and get to work. The Fortis doesn’t make the tool weightless, per se. What the suit is actually doing is taking the weight of the tool and distributing it down to the floor.
The suit itself didn’t take long to put on, and I got to feel the weight of the tools beforehand and after they’re strapped into the exoskeleton’s arm. It’s pretty impressive; rather than holding the tool up, it feels more like you’re managing it.
Right now, it takes two people to get a worker ready because the counterweights are on the back of the skeleton. The next generation will have the counterbalance weight to the side, so the user will be able to put their own counterbalance weight on.
We saw Maxwell rivet, walk up stairs and use a grinder. The Fortis exoskeleton is actually an offshoot of the Hulc, a powered exoskeleton.
Trish Aelker, a program manager for Lockheed Martin, said the company is still exploring the market for the exoskeleton. There’s potential uses in the mining industry, for use among first responders — think about the jaws of life — and, naturally, military applications.
“Exoskeletons in general, there’s a tremendous amount of applications where it can be modified,” Aelker said.
And the Iron Man nickname— is that something Lockheed embraces?
“No,” Aelker said with a laugh. “Iron man is a term that comes from the movies. Everyone watching tends to group all exoskeletons into Iron Man. Iron Man has a lot of features that aren’t in the realm of possibilities. Some of them break physics laws; some of them, the tech is just years and years away. So we try to stay away from the terminology Iron Man.”
Wait, Iron Man is out, but Hulk is in? OBJ’s resident comic book expert Richard Bilbao is not going to be happy.”
Source: BizJournals
