Innophys suit has a compressed-air tank with limited endurance, built to be periodically refilled from a stationary compressed-air system on job sites (since those are common in many industrial settings). Notably, their ad copy says: "Simply fill it with air using the supplied pump and it is ready for use. Therefore it can be used anytime, anywhere, for an unlimited amount of time, easily. When the assistive power weakens, just add more air." i.e. you're expected to be able to pump the thing (they include a hand pump as a last resort!) at any time.
The AWN-03, for its part has one set of high-power motors for when it's connected to AC power and a lower-power motor for battery operation; that Panasonic division, in the 5 years since that story was written, discontinued that product and defined down the problem to less power-hungry assist modes, namely short assistance during particularly strenuous motions.
There is progress. Japan has been developing assistance exoskeletons as an answer to elder care problems: power assist devices to allow not-strong people to lift/carry elderly people. Interestingly, much development has gone into pneumatic devices as they are inherently more waterproof than electric.
"In Japan, the commercialization of exoskeletons is already underway. Innophys, a startup founded in 2013 at the Tokyo University of Science, has already dispatched about 1,000 units across the country, in particular to Asahi-Sun, an elderly care supplier. Lighter than ActiveLink's AWN-03, Innophys' Exo-Muscle is a little less quick but offers more flexibility for a similar lifting capacity of 22 to 30 kilos (48 to 66 pounds). But Exo-Muscle uses an entirely different technology: compressed air, which is injected into rubber valves that inflate and contract."
https://worldcrunch.com/tech-science/an-aging-japan-turns-to...