Well-being HAL Single Joint Type

Well-being HAL Single Joint Type is the non-medical branch of the smallest machine Cyberdyne makes. Instead of a full leg frame it drives a single joint: the assisting part weighs about 1.5 kg, measures 200 x 200 x 944 mm without the control unit and battery, moves through a range from 0 degrees of extension to 120 of flexion, and runs for roughly 120 minutes on its custom battery. Surface electrodes pick up the faint bio-electrical traces of the commands the brain sends to the muscle, and the small power unit moves in step with that intention, so the wearer feels the joint bending under their own will rather than being folded by a machine. The hardware is the same on both sides of Cyberdyne's product split; what differs is the route to the user. The medical version is sold to hospitals, carries a CE mark under the European medical device directive and is used inside a treatment programme. This one is rented. Cyberdyne's own online store lists it under the Neuro HALFIT name in four packages - elbow set, knee set, ankle set and a suspended set - and the packages are aimed at people living with hemiplegia after a stroke or incomplete paraplegia after a spinal cord injury, not at institutions alone. First rental runs from 113,300 to 191,400 yen for the elbow and knee sets, 118,800 to 207,900 yen for the ankle set and 129,800 to 240,900 yen for the suspended set, depending on the plan and its length; customers who continue or restart a rental pay less, from 77,000 yen. Before any of that the user has to visit a Robo Care Center run by the group several times, for a suitability check and mandatory safety training - the machine is not simply shipped to a home address. Because the unit is light and needs no floor frame, training can start with the wearer still lying in bed, and a palm-sized controller handles start, stop, settings and status with one hand, leaving the therapist's other hand free to guide the movement. The current Japanese product page adds a detail the English one omits: a wireless power feeder among the accessories, which can be connected to a smartphone battery pack or a laptop to keep the unit running away from a wall socket. Dating this profile took a detour, because Cyberdyne publishes no release date for its well-being line. An archived copy of the company's English product page from 25 January 2014 already describes this device with exactly the specification it carries today - 1.5 kg, 200 x 200 x 944 mm, 0 to 120 degrees, 120 minutes - so the catalogue dates it to 2014. The medical branch was split off later: the separate medical page for the single joint type appears in the archive only from August 2021.

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