How would you like to be able to climb your favorite mountain
with a 100-pound backpack that feels like it weighs a little
more than your lunch and an extra pair of shoes? If Homayoon
Kazerooni gets his wish, you won't have to wait more than a few
years to hook up his "exoskeleton" and quite literally take a
load off your back. Kazerooni is professor of mechanical
engineering, and director of UC Berkeley's Robotics and Human
Engineering Laboratory, and he's got a contraption in his lab
that will add mechanical muscles to your body without having to
take a single steroid. The Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton,
known affectionately as "Exo" to Kazerooni was developed with
funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or
DARPA, the Pentagon's effort to fund research on projects that
to some people might seem a bit over the top. But Kazerooni's
Exo is serious stuff, with possible applications ranging from
fire fighting to combat to mountain climbing. In his crystal
ball, he sees the day when a fi