The military hardware known as the 'powered suit' appears in classic science fiction novel "Starship Troopers", where soldiers benefit from both the protection of armour plating, augmented mechanical muscles dozens of times the strength of humans and improved speed and agility. In the book, a single infantryman would be able to fight off a crowd of tanks single-handed. With the release of the HAL-5 suit, manufactured by Japanese Tsukuba University, this fiction is a giant leap closer to reality. Although the suit is not designed for military use and the wearer cannot move quickly, users do have several times the strength of an average human. HAL-5 is targeted at people suffering illness of disabilities - even a lying patient can walk unimpaired in the HAL-5 suit, vastly improving quality of life. The team which researched and developed HAL-5 has also established the Cyberdyne manufacturing company which is hoped will begin mass production of this powered suit. Currently, the battery lasts for only 2 hours 40 minutes and involves carrying a bulky waistcoat weighing 23kg in weight, though it is hoped these problems will soon be ironed out.
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