Researchers have created wearable robotic arms for humans.

Jizai Arms are described as a robotic limb system that can be attached when needed, with limbs able to be exchanged between friends.

Wearers strap on the base unit and can affix up to six arms, with hand modules designed to be interchangeable depending on the task. They are then controlled by the user or remotely.

The University of Tokyo research team say the system "was designed to enable social interaction between multiple wearers."

They found the appendages became so intuitive when tested that users missed them when they were removed.

A study paper describes: "From our role-playing sessions, we found that our bodies could precisely sense the attachment/detachment of arms, and we especially felt a strong impact when detaching or reducing the number of robotic arms worn."

The developers also foresee a time when wearers might take personalised ownership on their fake limbs.

The study adds: "We also suggested adding customisability to the robotic arms to generate a sense of social ownership, an individual's sense of ownership towards a specific artificial body part shared among multiple persons, as a future research topic."

The researchers suggest the Jizai Arms may point to a future where cyborg technology becomes popular.

They state: "Half a century since the concept of a cyborg was introduced, digital cyborgs, enabled by the spread of wearable robotics, are the focus of much research in recent times.

"We also provide an autobiographical report of our first impressions of using the Jizai Arms and use our findings to speculate on a model of potential social interactions between digital cyborgs.

"We believe that our autobiographical research account will contribute to future projects aiming to design digital cyborgs and human-machine integrated approaches in general."

The paper was published in the journal Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.