外骨骼设备是如何帮助日本劳动力的

外骨骼设备是如何帮助日本劳动力的

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.

未来几十年，许多国家都将面临人口老龄化和年轻人减少的问题，但日本已经达到了这一里程碑。日本大约26%的人口年龄在65岁以上。

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.

关于人口结构变化带来的负面影响已经有很多论述，但这种变化背后的一些原因——少女怀孕率大幅下降，以及人们积极选择适合自己的孩子数量(可能一个都没有)——是积极的。

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，也许我们只是需要发挥创造力，想出应对人口老龄化挑战的办法。任何重大的人口转移都会带来机会和困难。其中之一可能是老年人将工作更长时间——这是许多老年人无论如何都想要的，特别是当人们保持健康的时间更长时。在日本，目前的退休年龄是60岁，但有人提议将退休年龄提高到70岁，以弥补劳动力短缺。

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.

对很多人来说，长时间坐着工作可能没什么大不了，但体力劳动呢?针对年长员工的一种新的、有创意的解决方案是一种可以让体力劳动变得容易得多的技术解决方案。

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，就像一个背包，可以帮助人们更容易地举起重量，通过从背部减轻一些举重的压力，并更均匀地分布它，以及实际上帮助提升。就像有外骨骼的动物能够举起很多倍于它们体重的东西(比如蚂蚁)一样，把重量分布在外部也可以帮助人类做到这一点。

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只是生产这些设备的公司之一，它提供四种不同的样式。最轻的Edge能举起56磅的重量。一些款式使用手动(手动泵送)压缩空气功能，作为额外的提升“肌肉”，而其他型号只是使提升更容易与结构支持。

"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的发言人Daigo Orihara告诉《新科学家》杂志:“一个客户是一家生产和销售腌制萝卜的家族企业，在生产过程中使用了重金属。”“父亲已经70多岁了，本来应该退休的，但他还在用我们的肌肉套装工作。”

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.

这些设备并不便宜——Edge的价格是4500美元，其他型号的价格超过6000美元，但这比受伤或失业要便宜得多。当然，很多人都在使用这些外骨骼，他们甚至都不是上了年纪的人，比如在工厂工作的人、护士或需要扶病人的老年护理人员。