A battery-powered robotic arm capable of augmenting a person’s lifting power by 18kg has won the 2013 Dyson award.

Designed and built at the University of Pennsylvania by four mechanical engineering students, the Titan Arm is an upper-body exoskeleton that can be used by people who lift heavy objects during work, as well as helping to rehabilitate people with back injuries.

The team were awarded £30,000 with a further £10,000 donated to the University of Pennsylvania engineering department.

"Titan Arm is obviously an ingenious design, but the team’s use of modern, rapid – and relatively inexpensive – manufacturing techniques makes the project even more compelling,” said Sir James Dyson, the billionaire founder of the bagless vacuum cleaner and founder of the annual awards run by the James Dyson Foundation aimed at encouraging problem-solving inventions.

Costs 50 times less than your typical exoskeleton

The team spent eight months creating the Titan Arm, producing its prototype for £1,200 – 1/50th of the cost of typical exoskeletons currently available – using computer-aided design, 3D printing and computer controlled machining.

The robotic arm is connected to a rigid back brace that is strapped to the wearer to maintain posture, and is capable of boosting human weight-lifting capacity by 18kg.

Lasting about eight hours of use on a single charge, a joystick is currently needed to control the arm, however future versions could utilise electrical impulses from muscle tissue to trigger movement.

Sensors within the arm track its movement and relay information back to doctors, who can use the data to help stroke and injury victims rebuild muscle strength and relearn fine the motor control that is often lost.

The Dyson award’s second prize went to a brain-reading prosthetic hand packed with sensors from a team based in Japan, while third prize went to a team from New Zealand 3D printing casts for broken limbs.

• In February, Dyson launched a new tap that dries your hands as well called the AirBlade Tap