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Commercial Exoskeletons
FalconZero writes "For those of you with superhuman aspirations, your dream may be a step closer; New Scientist (recently) and the Japan Times (last year) covered Yoshiyuki Sankai's work at
the University of Tsukuba in Japan developing powered exoskeletons
with commercial versions expected soon costing between $14,000 and $19,000
(£7,500-£10,000). Other work with exoskeletons previously covered
here(1),
here(2) and
here(3)."
Berkeley has some videos of their BLEEX (Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton) Project on their web page.
Video
I swear that guy in the video is the Star Wars kid, if was making robot noises with his mouth he would have me convinced.
Welcome our new "bio-cybernic" overlords.
So when do we get mounted guns?
So I was trying to find one *good* Exoman site, and I couldn't find any. (It was a short-lived 1977 TV series about a paralyzed scientist who created his own exo-suit in which he would fight crime yada yada yada).
God, exoskeletons have been done to death -- see one giant bipedal forklift, you've seen them all.
Get back to me when we have commercial powered endoskeletons. Preferably with the razor-like claw add-on.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
With one of these and a perl script, I don't even have to work at masturbation.
If I can only incorporate that roomba into this...
Never play chicken with a passive aggressive.
I'm pretty sure that only reason why they're even devising these things is because of Japan's robot anime. You know, some guy jumps into a huge robot and control it through sensors all over his body.
There is some guy here in Japan who is that crazy about the anime that developed his own exo-skeleton to move his toy Mazinga robot around. They had him on TV wearing his Mazinga get up and fighting other geek's toy robots on one of the TV shows here. Apparently there are a lot of these robot hobbyists as well as uni students building these things.
Mazinga, BTW, is a really old anime, but not far removed from the likes of say Gundam, Voltron and a billion and one other ripoffs.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Alas, for Robert A. Heinlein's vision of Powersuits in Starship Troopers, exoskeletons, like those giant Japanese Mechs, are very cool in fiction, but probably not terribly useful in reality compared to more mundane alternatives.
Lawrence Person, Science Fiction Writer
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
I mean really, of all people...the Japanese coming up with something like this? No way.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Create an event which is half Battle Bots and half Ultimate Fighting Championship!
Now the fall of Oscorp is just one successful test away!
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
"Get away from her, you BITCH!"
A lot of wear an tear is from load bearing, and perhaps these powered suite address this to a degree, but I suspect in many cases they would exacerbate the problem for arthritis sufferers by adding to the weight load on joints, even while enabling superhuman lifting capabilities.
Even if they address the load issue on joints, it is overkill from what is really needed by tens of millions. I have not seen such a thing, but does anyone know of some kind of lightweight synchronized brace system? Something that would distribute the body's load to the hips directly and lock when the joints aren't moving? I have seen leg braces before, but not articulated ones that auto-lock. One thing that my father believed contributed to the breakdown of his joints were the long periods he spent standing doing his job as a chef. Again, a locking brace system would seem the answer for people that need to be on their feet long periods, but may have the beginnings of joint break down.
Letter To Iran
This seems a lot more appropriate for applications in construction than in the military or in medicine.
Digging/moving/lifting/mixing/carrying machines are generally designed to do jobs that humans can do, but on a larger scale and with more power. It seems to me that a person in a powered exoskeleton could perform such tasks pretty well, given the right tools or attachments.
i think the military application for exoskeletons is to help soldiers carry more supplies while marching extended distances. not fighting. marching. and i'm pretty sure we didn't have the tech for load-bearing exoskeletons back in WWII...
if i'm not immortal, what's the point of living?
...te?
We had the technology to build them back then??? Wow, that's news to me. The Japanese must seriously be SO behind in terms of technology that they are still building things from the 1950s.
On another note, I'm beginning to fear the impending rise of Japan's technological skills. With their recent attempt to amend their constitution to allow for a standing army along with their recent changes to their textbooks that make their actions during WW2 seem honorable instead of atrocious. I mean, sure there are some good uses for the new exoskeleton technology. But wouldn't the BEST way to help disabled people would be to research stem cells and how to regenerate nerves and muscles??? This exoskeleton that makes you twice as strong and straped to a computer which allows wireless hook up sure does make me think more of war than it does of helping old ladies. But hey, that's just me, I'm paranoid.
I think balance is starting become a solved problem. Look at the Segway for starters... plus previous Slashdot articles have linked to some very impressive videos of (small) robots doing handstands, ballet, etc. So it appears that balance is just a matter of having a fast enough computer running a clever enough feedback algorithm.
I think a more difficult problem will be energy: how does your exoskeleton carry enough fuel/energy to be useful without adding too much weight or compromising the user's safety?
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
I disagree.
Take a squad of 25 men, and put them in suits (albiet suits somewhat more advanced than these). Like Heinlein's, to a large degree. Making them nuclear powered might be practical, to some degree, if they were to give a significant edge in battle.
If the suits were 8' fall or so and had thick (ie, tank-level reactive) body armor, the squad of 25 could very likely out-maneuver most tank/armor batallions of the world, and most certainly out-gun all but the most intense infantry. They'd be able to withstand multiple RPG-type hits (possibly, provided the soldier isn't injured due to percussion), and would be harder to hit than a vehicle by far. With the assistance of advanced machinery and electronics, they'd likely be able to do a better, faster job sniping than most snipers, and be able to carry much larger guns than an unarmored soldier - though probably not quite as big as a vehicle-mounted weapon.
Think of them as something between a soldier on foot with a troop rifle (M16 or BAR) and a HV with a 100mm cannon. Maybe they'd carry a 30mm cannon with a couple thousand rounds, a decent sniper rifle, and a 20mm grenade launcher with plenty of ammo for it - significantly more power than even a squad could dish out, but not as much as an armored vehicle.
I don't imagine such suits being used to replace, say, foot infantry or even advanced groups like 1st Recon USMC or Navy SEAL. I think they'd largely be used in support capacity for those squads, or for the troops with less prowess. They'd likely get carted around on a transport truck, just like any other piece of specialized machinery - only deployed when needed (such as, say, for guard duty).
I obviously don't think such things are near to implimentation or deployment, but provided things don't tank in the near future, I suspect something similar - or at least a step in that direction - will be coming to the US Armed Forces within a while.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I'm beginning to fear the impending rise of Japan's technological skills.
The impending rise? Where have you been for the last few decades? As a country their technological skills and drive have been cutting edge for a long time now.
With their recent attempt to amend their constitution to allow for a standing army
If my country was that close the North Korea and China I'd really want it to have a standing army too. I guess they could rely on the Americans for ever, but they have a lot of other commitments and what if you don't always agree with them?
changes to their textbooks that make their actions during WW2 seem honorable instead of atrocious
Now that's a massive generalisation, assuming you are talking about the same thing as the Chinese have been protesting about. A textbook, not all, done by a company not the government referred to the rape of Nanking as an "incident". Now that isn't good, it was a massacre and a war crime, but you may be generalising just a bit from it.
But wouldn't the BEST way to help disabled people would be to research stem cells and how to regenerate nerves and muscles
It would be another way. We don't know it would be the best way until we tried both. Even then, best how? Cost? How quickly it is available? Quality of life for sufferers? Percentage of sufferers it works for?
It's pretty rare with medical conditions that one treatment works for everyone. Researching multiple ways to deal with it is generally a good thing, that saying about all you eggs in one basket.
Yes, exos could have military applications, (a lot of tech can, if it can it usually gets used) the US army has already said it is interested, and researching. Given their military budget they would almost certainly be the first to use such technology if it becomes practical.