A woman wearing a Cyberdyne lumbar robotic suit, which is designed to help her walk, gets an assist from caregiver Asami Konishi. TSUKUBA, Japan -- In America and other aging societies around the world, it has become common for the elderly to be cared for by their graying children or older workers. That's largely because the younger labor force is shrinking, and few want to do such low-paying, back-aching work. Japan sees an answer in robots. At Minami Tsukuba nursing home near Tokyo, caregiver Asami Konishi wears a robotic device on her hips that cuts the stress on her back when she bends and lifts someone.

Danny Bal was riding his brand new motorcycle to work from his home in Ocala, Florida two years ago when the driver of an oncoming car fell asleep and ploughed into Bal's electric-blue bike. After the accident, which crushed three of Bal's thoracic vertebrae and shredded a spinal nerve, Bal adjusted to life in a wheelchair. He added a motorized lift to his beloved F-250 truck, explored local trails with a hand-powered bike, and joined a therapeutic horseback riding program. Now, one of Bal's daughters is about to get married, and 57-year-old Bal wants to walk in her ceremony. So on a recent Friday morning in December at Brooks Rehabilitation in Jacksonville, Florida, Bal was back on his feet, taking slow but steady steps as his granddaughter cheered from the sidelines.

A French startup has developed a futuristic exoskeleton device that can help patients with complete lower body paralysis to walk without crutches or a walker. Called the'Atalante', it's a robotic suit that uses sophisticated computers and motors to emulate the way humans walk. The device was developed by Paris-based Wandercraft and is now undergoing patient trials, with the hope of going on sale soon. A French startup has developed a futuristic exoskeleton device that can help paraplegic patients walk without crutches or a walker. It's currently in testing but could go on sale soon Users begin by sitting in the device then moving their hips, which tells the motors in the hips, knees and ankle to move, forcing the device into a standing position.

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There could soon be real-life cyborgs walking among us. A Japanese robotics firm recently received approval from the FDA to bring its futuristic HAL Robot Suit to the U.S. Cyberdyne has been developing the Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) for nearly a decade, but only now has the firm been able to bring the technology stateside. Cyberdyne's Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) robotic suit can help people with spinal injuries learn to walk again. Now, the Brooks Cybernetic Treatment Center in Jacksonville, Florida is testing out the robotic suit that is worn as an exoskeleton and can be used to help people with disabilities learn to walk again. The robot suit fits around the wearer's midsection and legs to provide support for people who are otherwise unable to walk on their own, such as people who are suffering from a spinal cord injury.

The HAL is designed to fit around a spinal injury patient's legs and abdomen, providing support for people who would otherwise be unable to stand or walk. But unlike other exo-suits, patients command the HAL with their minds. Instead of a joystick or other manual controller, the HAL uses an EEG-like sensor to pick up nerve signals from the patient's brain through their skin which it then translates into a command to engage the suit's legs. What's more, this method trains the user to activate specific neural pathways for voluntary movement, which helps them improve their ability to walk unassisted. You will need at least some degree of sensation, however, for the treatment to work, Dr. Geneva Tonuzi, Medical Director of the Brooks Cybernic Treatment Center, told Engadget.

U.S.-affiliated insurance firm AIG Japan Holdings K.K. and wearable robot maker Cyberdyne Inc. have formed a business alliance in the nonlife insurance business. Under the tie-up deal announced Monday, the unit of New York-based American International Group Inc. and Cyberdyne will develop and sell nonlife insurance products for users of wearable robots for rehabilitation and work. AIG Japan will also encourage its corporate clients to promote Cyberdyne's products as a way to prevent employee injuries. Cyberdyne has already launched a joint venture with Daido Life Insurance Co. to develop new insurance policies that will cover fees for the use of its HAL robot suit used in medical treatment.

Japan is famously wary of immigration, fearing that foreign workers will undermine job security and upset familiar ways of life. But there is one kind of industrious interloper that is greeted more enthusiastically in Japan than in any other country. Robots or "immigrants from the future", as my colleague Oliver Morton calls them, are unusually well assimilated into Japanese society. Japan's obsession with robots is well documented. Foreign journalists seem to like Japan's affection for robots almost as much as Japan likes robots.