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Homebrewed Robot Exoskeleton In Alaska

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the droids-you're-looking-for dept.

museumpeace writes "CNET has an article about a robotic exoskeleton ginned up by tinkerer from Alaska There are a few cool pictures. The audacity of Mr. Owens project, if you believe the article, compares to the efforts of the old Home Brew Computer Club when compared to the work of GE or Toyota. Inspiration here comes more from sci-fi and video games than from industrial competition. The article is a good roundup of MECHA related developments, some of which sprang from DARPA money, so I am glad at least a few of my tax dollars are having some real geek fun."

4 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sorry... by jangobongo · · Score: 2, Informative

    But, I have a feeling the first step is going to put this flat on it's face.

    Mr. Owens say he has addressed this by making sure the lower half weighs far more than the upper half, and some other design modifications. The whole thing (pic) weighs a ton and a half, though.

    I'd love to see a project like this tackled on "Junkyard Mega-Wars". Dueling Exoskeletons!

    --

    Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
  2. Re:I disagree by JuggleGeek · · Score: 2, Informative
    He isn't getting any DARPA money.

    From the article:

    In all, the materials for the project have cost him $15,000 so far. Not bad for a killing (or at least potentially flame-throwing, car-mashing) machine.

    That's a lot less than the $50 million that the U.S. military, through its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) division, has devoted to research into a smaller, lighter exoskeleton that can be used on the battlefield.

    DARPA has been pursuing the idea of a "Starship Troopers"-inspired soldier at least since 2000, when it started its Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation program.

  3. Other leg-enhancing system? by tyroney · · Score: 2, Informative
    Anyone? Not the Berkeley exoskelton thing. I seem to recall, back in the 90's, showed up in pop sci... some kind of strap-on device that was supposed to augment your leg motions. (military was interested or actively developing, if I recall) I think it was mostly mechanical, I'm not sure if it merely multiplied the movement or affected the force, and if I recall the bulk of the legs/levers stuck out behind and below the user. (kind of like thick flamingo legs, or some other animal similar but more cool) The end result was supposed to be 2x the leg motion, not tons more effort. Kind of like more efficient and stable and jointed stilts.

    Anyone remember or know what I'm talking about? I can't seem to find anything about it.

  4. Re:Other *Real* Mecha/Teleop links by StCredZero · · Score: 2, Informative

    For one thing, you seem pretty unclear about what my other points are. (That the control technology already exists to do this, and that it's decades old. And that this guy doesn't seem to appreciate the control problems.)

    You're putting words into my mouth. No one's damning him. But his project is not going to produce anything that looks like *combat* unless there's some pretty sophisticated dynamic balancing capability.

    Imagine that mecha A and mecha B are fighting. A is not dynamically balanced and has no haptic feedback from its limbs, but B is dynamically balanced by a human pilot getting feedback through a full-body haptic interface. B grabs mecha A's arm and gives a good tug. If mecha A was a human being, then it would sense the amount of force exerted through its arm, then shift its feet or stumble to keep its center of gravity over its feet -- perhaps even slacken its arm to prevent the transmission of the impulse. But since mecha A has no dynamic balance, it can do none of this. If mecha B pulls hard enough, then mecha A's left foot might even be levered entirely off the ground, and the pilot would have no immediate feedback.

    Contrast this to what happens when you grab a human's arm a give a tug. If you stop and think about it, dozens of things all happen at once as a reflex to keep you from falling over. A mecha with haptic feedback can leverage this naturally evolved ability. Maybe the monster truck crowd is going to be impressed because of all the heavy metal, and the clashing of big clubs on steel, but the perceptive ones will notice that combat without balancing capability look like a couple of toddlers duking it out.

    Without balancing tech on the level of Asimo, I'd rather put my money on a non-bipedal robot like the
    T-52