Gold Cybernetics, Prosthesis and Implant Design · 2023
Jizai Arms Supernumerary Robotic Limb System
- A' Design Award 2023 Gold Winner in Cybernetics, Prosthesis and Implant Design
- Awarded April 15, 2023
- CLIENT: The University of Tokyo
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 630,328
- Verification code 0BC32E34BD · Verify this award
About Jizai Arms Supernumerary Robotic Limb System
Jizai Arms is a supernumerary robotic limb system worn on the body. The system consists of a wearable base unit with six terminals and detachable robotic arms, each with five degrees of freedom. The arms can be attached and removed quickly, so wearers can exchange arms with one another. Exterior parts are produced by three-dimensional printing, which allows complex shapes and reduces weight. The arms are operated through a half scale model moved by hand, and the posture of the model is applied directly to the robotic arms.
Team JIZAI ARMS's remarkable creation represents a significant contribution to the evolving discourse surrounding human augmentation and the expansion of bodily capability through technological integration. The Supernumerary Robotic Limb System emerges from a rich tradition of speculative design and engineering innovation that imagines new possibilities for human embodiment, drawing upon decades of research in wearable robotics while proposing a distinctly expressive and aesthetically refined approach to body extension. The design demonstrates sophisticated consideration of visual harmony, with the pristine white limbs establishing a deliberate contrast with the wearer's dark attire that emphasizes the technological apparatus as both functional tool and symbolic statement about the future relationship between human and machine. Technical accomplishment manifests in the fluid articulation of each limb, the elegant resolution of the central mounting mechanism, and the careful attention to joint design that suggests natural range of motion despite mechanical origins. The work invites consideration of fundamental questions about the boundaries of the self, the nature of embodiment, and the potential for technology to expand rather than diminish human agency and expression. One might observe resonances with artistic traditions depicting multi-armed deities, suggesting the design engages not merely with engineering problems but with deeper cultural archetypes concerning transcendence and enhanced capability. The modular architecture implies collaborative potential—perhaps these limbs might be shared between individuals, creating new forms of physical communication and mutual support. Viewers are encouraged to contemplate how such innovations might reshape our understanding of human potential and the collaborative futures they might enable.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- JIZAI ARMS is a supernumerary robotic limb system.
It was designed to enable social interaction between multiple JIZAI ARMS wearers such as an exchange of arms.JIZAI ARMS is a supernumerary robotic limb system consisting of a wearable base unit with detachable robotic arms. The system has been designed to enable social interaction between multiple wearers, such as exchanging arms, and to explore possible interactions between digital cyborgs in a cyborg society. - Dimensions & Packaging
- Width 900mm x Depth 400mm x Height 1000mm
*A system contains attachable/detachable robotic limb and wearable base unit, dimensions changes up to layout and posture of arms. - Tags
- Cyborg, Digital Cyborg, Social Digital Cyborg, Supernumerary Robotic Limb System, Robotic Limbs, Wearable Robotic Limbs, Human-Machine Integration, Human-Computer Integration, Robotics, Human-Robot Integration
- Production Technology
- This system contains a wearable base unit which has six terminal to attach arms and board to communication, and robotic arms with 5 DOF.
Exterior parts are designed with organic and complex shape to cover only necessory part and make it lighter, 3D printing enabled these complex shape.
We designers worked from considering basic engineering specification like motor layout and geometry of arms, to finalize exterior design.
This process made sophisticated design. - Design Challenge
- Enabling quick and free attach/detach of arms is a core concept of JIZAI ARMS and system design for this feature was one of a hard point.
Production team invented connection system enables easy attach/detach and connect both electrically and physically, but stiff enough as a base of robotic arms.
From styling perspective, achieving a beautiful fusion of human body and machine was a challenging point. We designed this robotic system rationally but tried designing it visually fit to human body. - Project Duration
- The project started in Nov 2021 in part of JST INAMI JIZAI BODY PROJECT and completed production in September 2022. JIZAI ARMS has firstly used and shown in dance performances in JIZAI Collection held at Tokyo in Novenber 2022.
- Operation Flow
- JIZAI ARMS is a system contains wearable base unit and detachable robotic arms.
Robotic arms which connected to base unit are controlled by computer.
In current prototype, robotic arms are controlled using a 1/2 scale model as a controller, operator can control arms with moving a model like puppet.
Using this controller, operator controll robotic arms intuitively since a posture which operators made with model is directly applied to actual robotic arms. - Research
- JIZAI ARMS is a prototype to explore possible social interactions between digital cyborgs in a cyborg society, such as gifting body parts or exchanging arms.
In existing research in human augmentation, interesting changes of embodiment happened through using wearable robotics has reported.
We focused not only individual wearer but also embodied experience happen between multiple digital cyborgs, and made JIZAI ARMS as a prototype to make such experiences real. - Inspiration
- In “One Arm”, Nobel Prize-winning author Yasunari Kawabata wrote a weird scene that a girl gives her arm to a man and a man stay a night with it.
He vividly described a man’s experience at the night with his wide-ranging emotional changing.
After a half a century, emerging human-machine integration technologies have begun to allow us to physically experience Kawabata’s world.
“JIZAI ARMS” are designed to explore possible interactions between digital cyborgs in a cyborg society.
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Human Augmentation and Cybernetics Research
We pioneer supernumerary robotic limb systems and human-machine integration technologies at the forefront of cybernetics research. Our award-winning work explores the future of digital cyborgs and embodied experiences, advancing the possibilities of human augmentation through innovative wearable…
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