Cyborg or avatar: will you wear a robot, or operate it?

Some robots won't replace us. Some will augment us: make us faster, stronger, bigger, more capable. Sarcos Robotics has built both robots that you can wear and robots you can operate, and just recently unveiled the Guardian XT to complement the Guardian XO. One you wear, and it helps you lift 200 pounds with minimal effort. The other you teleoperate in VRwhile wearing motion-capturing clothing. Weld, cut, lift, bolt ... you can do it all in dangerous situations from the safety of the ground, or your home. In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with Ben Wolff from Sarcos about the Guardians, how they work, and what they mean about the future of work. Links: Sarcos https://www.sarcos.com Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/ Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work. TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/ Forbes columns: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/  Subscribe to the podcast: https://anchor.fm/techfirst  Full videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/johnkoetsier?sub_confirmation=1  Keep in touch: https://twitter.com/johnkoetsier Contents: 0:00 Fleet of thousands 1:06 Robot avatars 2:11 Wearable robots 4:43 Merging human and machine 5:08 Where these robots work 8:41 Fine motor control 10:03 Power supply 10:58 Range of motion 13:30 Robots & work in 5 years