Dec 11, 2013 12:14 PM EST By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) engineering students have come up with a solution for those with certain disabilities, the elderly and who needs help lifting things.

It is called the Titan Arm and it can lift up to an additional 40 pounds (18 kilograms). According to the Associated Press, the engineering students designed it for people with physical limitations or who just need en extra hand.

The device is essentially a robotic arm strapped to a backpack. In technical terms, it is an untethered, upper-body exoskeleton. It runs on battery power and its cost-efficient design has already led to several prizes, awards and perhaps, one day, mass production.

"They built something that people can relate to," Robert Carpick, chairman of UPenn's mechanical engineering department, told the AP. "And of course it appeals clearly to what we've all seen in so many science-fiction movies of superhuman strength being endowed by an exoskeleton."

Such equipment like the Titan Arm is a "wearable robot" product, but such items are typically very expensive and hard to find. One such device is built for the lower body and helps paralyzed people walk, but it is not approved for retail and can cost $50,000 to $100,000.

"When we started talking to physical therapists and prospective users, or people who have gone through these types of injuries, we just kept on getting more and more motivated," said Titan Arm team member Nick Parrotta, now a graduate student at UPenn.

As part of a project last year, Parrotta, Elizabeth Beattie, Nick McGill and Niko Vladimirov designed the final product for less then $2,000. It weighs a total of 18 pounds - the weight of some students' backpacks - and fits on the user's arm like a sleeve.

The student designers said the arm can be used for tasks as simple as lifting a pan. Since its unveiling, the Titan Arm has garnered about $75,000 in prize money and a lot of interest from market experts.

The students' next objective, despite heavy coursework and one of the designer's move to the west coast, is to refine their creation.

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