Toyota Plans to Offer a Robotic Leg to Help the Disabled

Japanese carmaker Toyota has designed a robotic leg to help disabled people walk.

日本丰田汽车公司设计了一种机器人腿来帮助残疾人行走。

The company demonstrated the new device to reporters at its headquarters in Tokyo this week.

该公司本周在其东京总部向记者展示了这一新装置。

The robotic leg is called the Welwalk WW-1000 system. It has a mechanical frame that fits onto a person's leg below the knee. Patients can practice walking on a special treadmill.

机器人腿被称为Welwalk WW-1000系统。它有一个机械框架，可以放在膝盖以下的人的腿上。病人可以在特殊的跑步机上练习走路。

Eiichi Saito is a doctor and an executive vice president at Fujita Health University. His university helped Toyota develop the robotic leg.

Saito是一名医生，也是富士达卫生大学的执行副校长。他的大学帮助丰田开发了机器人腿。

Saito said it is designed to be worn on one leg for patients who are paralyzed on one side of their body because of a stroke or other disease.

Saito说，它是为那些因中风或其他疾病而瘫痪在身体一侧的病人设计的。

The device is attached with a strap to the thigh, knee, ankle and foot of the person using it. A motor helps to bend and straighten the knee. Sensors provide information about what is happening and medical staff can control the system through a touch panel screen.

该装置与使用它的人的大腿、膝盖、脚踝和脚相连。运动有助于弯曲和伸直膝盖。传感器提供有关正在发生的事情的信息，医务人员可以通过触摸屏控制系统。

"This helps just barely enough," said the researcher, who said helping a patient too much can slow recovery.

研究人员说：“这几乎没有什么帮助。”他说，帮助病人太多会减缓康复。

Japanese carmakers are also making robots

日本汽车制造商也在制造机器人

Japanese carmakers have been developing robotics for manufacturing and other uses for many years.

日本汽车制造商多年来一直在开发用于制造和其他用途的机器人。

Honda Motor Co., for example, has developed the Asimo humanoid robot that can run, dance and speak.

例如，本田汽车公司（Honda Motor Co.）开发了一种能跑、能跳舞、能说话的阿西莫类人机器人。

Toyota's WelWalk system uses robotic technology to assist people in moving and walking. Toyota took about 10 years to develop the robot walker.

丰田的Welwalk系统使用机器人技术来帮助人们移动和行走。丰田花了大约10年的时间开发了机器人步行机。

Toshiyuki Isobe is with Toyota's Frontier Research Center. He told Reuters news service that it has taken the company time to develop robotics products.

Toshiyuki Isobe是丰田前沿研究中心的成员。他告诉路透社新闻服务，该公司花了时间开发机器人产品。

"The biggest challenges have been in determining the needs of the robot market, which is relatively new, and to ensure that our products are safe," he said.

他说：“最大的挑战是确定相对较新的机器人市场的需求，并确保我们的产品安全。”

Robots that assist in health care are seen as an important and growing market.

帮助医疗保健的机器人被视为一个重要且不断增长的市场。

Growing market for robots in healthcare

不断增长的医疗机器人市场

Eiichi Saito says Toyota's device is aimed at helping common paralysis caused by health problems like strokes that can happen to aging people. Japan's population is aging faster than other countries. In 2015, more than 26 percent of Japanese were aged 65 or older.

Saito说，丰田的设备旨在帮助老年人中风等健康问题导致的普通瘫痪。日本的人口老龄化速度比其他国家快。2015年，超过26%的日本人年龄在65岁或以上。

Robotic devices may also be better for patients in some cases. Saito said patients using the device can recover more quickly because the robotic sensors in the WelWalk are more sensitive to movement than a human health worker.

在某些情况下，机器人设备可能对患者更好。Saito说，使用这种设备的病人恢复得更快，因为Welwalk上的机器人传感器比人类卫生工作者对运动更敏感。

Some experts expect demand for robots used to assist in care of the old and disabled will increase sharply. That is because there will be fewer people in the work force to care for the growing number of older patients.

一些专家预计，用于帮助照顾老人和残疾人的机器人需求将急剧增加。这是因为劳动力中照顾越来越多老年患者的人数将会减少。

The International Robotic Federation says more than 37,000 robots used in healthcare for the aged and disabled will be sold between 2016 and 2019. It says the field is expected to increase a lot in the next 20 years.

国际机器人联合会表示，将在2016年至2019年期间出售用于老年人和残疾人医疗保健的37000多台机器人。报告称，该领域预计在未来20年内将大幅增长。

Toyota plans to rent 100 of the robotic systems to medical centers in Japan later this year. Costs include a $9000 one-time charge and a monthly rental cost of $3,200.

丰田计划今年晚些时候将100个机器人系统租给日本的医疗中心。费用包括一次性收费9000美元和每月租金3200美元。

However, competition in walking assistance devices is growing. The medical technology company Hocoma of Switzerland and ReWalk Robotics of the United States also have developed robotic walkers.

然而，步行辅助设备的竞争日益激烈。瑞士的Hocoma医疗技术公司和美国的ReWalk机器人公司也开发了机器人步行机。

I'm Mario Ritter.