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First Military Exoskeleton Reaches Prototype
JonathanGCohen writes "The U.S. Military has created the first ever prototype for an exoskeleton to be worn by soldiers capable of making its 100 pound weight and a 70 pound supply package feel like five pounds." From the article: "Bleex 1 consists of a pair of hydraulically powered leg braces, more than 40 electronic sensors, a control computer, and an internal-combustion engine providing power from an attached backpack. The plastic and carbon-fiber braces are affixed rigidly to the soldier through a customized pair of standard Army boots, with more compliant and giving connections at the chest and waist. These looser connections prevent blisters and abrasions."
This is not news.
It's been done before, and it's been done better.
^_^
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
the newer version will allow soldiers ... wearing it to move faster than 6 feet per second.
thus actually enabling a real version of "The Wrong Trousers"
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Here is Lieutenant Ripley testing the device.
Trolling is a art,
Perhaps this can be adapted to civilian use to enable the traditional "groom carrying the bride over the threshold" maneuver that is becoming increasingly more difficult in the US.
Imagine the chicks you could pick up wearing one of these babies :-)
Yeah, but then you have to deal with them yelling "Put me down, put me down!"
During development, an operator donned Bleex 1, which weighed about 100 lb, along with a backpack carrying a 70-lb load. He could walk at about two steps per second (or 6 fps) and it felt like he was only lugging a 5-lb load. The first prototype was restricted to walking on flat terrain and not-too-steep hills, but the wearer could also squat, bend, and swing from side to side, as well as step over obstacles. The suit is water resistant and will float, according to its inventors.
Now at last I realize why I have been playing so many futuristic soldiers in games that can carry sixteens different heavy weapons weighing hundreds of pounds, but cannot jump over a three-foot tall wall. They all had the Bleex.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"Help. I've fallen and I can't get up!"
"If a group of men can do it to a different group of men, what is it?"
Congress.