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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.
^_^
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Which would you rather do: Carry 70 pounds throughout your journey, or carry 5 pounds for the first 15 minutes and then well over a hundred for the rest?
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
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,
I am fairly sure the machine design aritcal that your link references is several months old.
Here is another link:
http://bleex.me.berkeley.edu/bleex.htm
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.
I suspect the biggest obstacle to comfortably using exoskeletons is responsiveness. If you want to move your hand, you just think about it and it takes a few milliseconds to move. With an exoskeleton, you have to hit the sensors (perhaps past their critical point), and the hydraulics/whatever has to kick in and move it. How long does that take?
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
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.
that's great, but can it find Sarah Connor?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
http://machinedesign.com/asp/viewSelectedArticle.a sp?strArticleId=59627&strSite=MDSite&catId=2
Is this link broken?? keeps tellin me... Either this or this article seems to work though??
TFA says, and I quote "Carrying a quart of military standard JP-4 gas". Now as a member of the US military, I will not wear this. JP-4 has a very low flash point and is very unstable, not to mention it is a JET FUEL, one spark and you would be toasted. A better alternative would be JP-8, which while still jet fuel, you can throw a match into and nothing will happen since it's flash point is extremely high. Either way I personally don't want to have a quart of jet fuel on me the next time I go to the desert...just sounds like bad news to me.
I think this is the link we want http://machinedesign.com/asp/viewSelectedArticle.a sp?strArticleId=59627&strSite=MDSite&catId=2
If the wearer/opeartor falls down, can they stand up again unassisted?
I get a picture of beached whales or insects on their backs.
Not trolling, I really want to know!
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
It would really suck to be wearing one of these things when an EMP bomb goes off over the battlefield. I'm sure 170 pounds is not going to feel like 5 pounds after the electronics shuts down.
The story linked to above is a summary of this article:
a sp?strArticleId=59627&strSite=MDSite&catId=2
Giving soldiers a high-tech leg up
http://machinedesign.com/asp/viewSelectedArticle.
The real best use for this is obvious. Geek's would love to have one. Imagine the chicks you could pick up wearing one of these babies :-)
I got through to Machine Design on the first attempt.
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
I'd like to thank whoever posted the link to UC Berkeley's page. As the Machine Design article I summarized doesn't have a date, I was unaware of the history of the project. I hope most people are as intrigued by this cool military tech as I am.
This is far cry from something useful. Soldiers do a lot more than walking. What about running, diving, low crawling to some cover, then firing from a crouched postion?
through a customized pair of standard Army boots
Then they're not exactly standard if they are customized... details, details...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Giving soldiers a high-tech leg up
/. is complaining that it's been 4 minutes since I last posted... how long do I effing have to wait? Is this going to be a dupe by the time it finally lets me?)
Those whiz kids at Darpa are at it again. This time they want to use technology to let soldiers carry up to 220 lb in backpacks over all types of terrain, terrain vehicles can't get through, and for extended lengths of time. They believe the key is wearable robotic exoskeletons and have invested $50 million in the project. One recipient, a design team at the University of California, Berkeley, is under the lead of Mechanical Engineering Prof. H. Kazerooni. They've completed work on their first prototype, Bleex 1 (for Berkeley lower extremity exoskeleton) and are working on Bleex 2.
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.
The 2-hp engine turns a pump to pressurize the hydraulic system with 1,000-psi fluid. Hydraulics power the actuators, giving the exoskeleton its muscles and letting it move. The engine also turns a generator for electricity. The device carries about a quart of gas, enough for 15 min of high-powered walking. After experimenting with a number of fuels, including concentrated hydrogen peroxide, Kazerooni decided on using gasoline based on its power density. It also lets the device be refueled in the field. If Darpa has its way, however, the exoskeleton delivered to the Army will probably use JP-4, the common battlefield fuel for tanks, humvees, and other armored vehicles.
Key to controlling Bleex 1 is the lack of operator controls. Instead, Berkeley researchers clinically analyzed the human gait and programmed the robotic legs to follow that pattern. The wearer simply moves his limbs, and the suit detects that movement and powers the suit to follow. The backpack load is almost entirely supported by Bleex. But because the device is so sensitive to inputs, it is almost unstable, says Kazerooni. The operator is needed to provide balance.
"The pilot is not 'driving' the exoskeleton," says Kazerooni. "Instead, the control algorithms in the computer constantly calculate how to move the exoskeleton so that it moves in concert with the human."
Each leg has five electronic modules connected in a high-speed synchronous ring network or LAN. Each module is connected to nearby sensors and actuators, and all modules talk to each other, as well a controlling computer. A third ring network lets the design team debug the system and acquire data. Eventually, the third ring may support electronic and communication gear needed by the soldier (but not by the exoskeleton).
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.
The next-generation device, Bleex 2, should be unveiled soon. The biggest change, and challenge, is devising a new power source. For example, it could use a hybrid power source instead of just a gas engine, which might cut down on weight and noise. Weight reduction is a major goal of the team and Bleex 2 should tip the scales at half the weight of Bleex 1. In tests, Bleex 2 let operators carry 200-lb loads and run faster than 6 fps. The Berkeley team is also working on extending the range, flexibility, and agility of the system.
(Goddammit, I'm trying to post this and damned
Has no one noticed the massive problem here? If this is ment for a figting force, how the heck can you hide from fire when wearing this! The backpack is huge, talkabout a painting a target on your back. Although I suppose the Americans do like to have something to shoot at (perhaps they should paint it blue?) ========== The Digerati (We hate IPODS) - Had to fix two on Christmas Day Its Self! ==========
PAKA will take over the world one
ART on dA
It's acutally in Aliens , not Alien.
As you might recall, the Japanese beat Professor Kaz's team to it, although the application the Japanese one is aimed at is different:
The Sexy Japanese Version
BTW isn't having a gas engine bad because of the noise it might make?
I really recommend reading Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman. It explores some of the issues (many of them moral) that come about when one nation can make war on another nation with no risk to its own men (through the use of robotic suits that have eventually had the humans taken all the way out). We're definitely headed that way...
It's a fabulous book - from the same guy who wrote Forever War, but it's not a series or anything.
Anyway, here's a question to toss out:
If one man can cause pain to another man with no risk to himself, then it's basically torture.
If a group of men can do it to a different group of men, what is it?
--LWM
Have you ever tried to draw a crossbow without the aide of a winch?
ok the link has been fixed it now.
Meanwhile, the US military recently launched a study into why so many soldiers and Marines were suffering back injuries (both during and post-deployment). Extreme equipment weights are cited as primary factors. So, technologies like this could really help.
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
After watching those videos at the UC Berkeley site I wonder how practical this thing is. -Very loud gas engine (dangerous too with the jet fuel) -Seems very awkward and unatural for the person wearing it. Why not just work on robots that will carry heavy things? The fact that the apparatus weighs so much in comparison to what it allows you to carry also seems ridicules.
Well, crossbow is designed to release all the energy at once. But if you put a tight crossbow perpendicular to the other one, by extending itself, it would compress the other one. The two balance each other out. (I'm assuming all this, of course:)
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
You're kidding, right?
The only force coming out of the springs would be the force you used to compress them. So instead of using that force to just carry the damn load directly, you're using that force to compress the springs to carry the load. Add to that the force needed to carry the springs themselves, and the force lost through entropy, and you've got the stupidest powered exoskeleton idea I've heard all day.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
here
So what happens when you have to crawl or climb something with your hands and feet? Does the 5 pound weight turn into 150? What if you have to hit the deck, how are you supposed to get up easily? Whats the point in a system thats not designed to make you stronger, only to let you carry more weight over reasonable conditions, and only if someone else actually picks it up? Why invest so much in that when you can more cheaply just get an extra person in to share the load? I thought the point of exoskeletons was to make you stronger so you could pick up heavy things (by pick up i mean with your hands or robot hands) and have more stamina, so you could easily win hand to hand combat and so you could have a stable, smooth mount point for your gun to improve accuracy.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Help. I've fallen and I can't get up!"
How do you get out of the device quickly? What affect does this have on a soldier's mobility?. Can he run if he is ambushed? With warfare the way it is today, he mostly won't know when the bullets will start flying. So mobility is key to increasing the survival rate of our soldiers in the field. The thing looks pretty clunky to me so it maybe better to designed a robot to carry the gear and free the soldier to engage the enemy at moments notice.
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
This exoskeleton sucks for defending and going after people in cities, close alleys.
It would be good if they figured out how to enclose a soldier in plated armor strong enough to withstand a IED (although that maight be a lot of armor).
The main benefits of that would be that even though you are slow you can take a punishment and still be able to get into alleys, buildings, and other places a M1Abrahms can't get into.
Then again... It would be more logical to send in a remote controlled robot with a machine gun on it.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Wouldn't it be funny if it had an unmuffled 2-stroke engine?
Whiinnnnnnngggg-ding-ding-ding...
It is possible that you could make something useful along this line of thinking. Pretty much all the muscles in your body come in pairs. If there was some way that you can use one set to add energy to some kind of spring/elastic material so that the next motion the stored energe will add force from the spring to your (other set of) muscles, then somehow you might make a suit that doubled the force of each motion you make. Of course, you end up doing at least twice as much work... so maybe in some situations the tradeoff might be worth it.
"If a group of men can do it to a different group of men, what is it?"
Congress.
A term has already been coined for this kind of armored exoskeleton system:
MechWarrior.
It's not supposed to be efficient yet, it's just supposed to work. If they can get the concept down it's only a matter of optimization as they move forward. They've shown that the technology can get us there, which is what the people with all the money want to know before they decide to spend on it.
"Don't waste your time or time will waste you" -MUSE
It is possible that you could make something useful along this line of thinking. Pretty much all the muscles in your body come in pairs. If there was some way that you can use one set to add energy to some kind of spring/elastic material so that the next motion the stored energe will add force from the spring to your (other set of) muscles, then somehow you might make a suit that doubled the force of each motion you make. Of course, you end up doing at least twice as much work... so maybe in some situations the tradeoff might be worth it.
I think you misspelled "perpetual motion".
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
Got to love how any military product has to have a PR photo ready first, results later. Research in any other field doesn't need consumer-electronics-level designers quite so early in the project. Something about that gives me the willies.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I saw this and being in the military, I had some questions. First about the article:
philoneist is very sketchy about this article and points to machinedesign and DARPA. I goto machine design and the entire article is undated giving no clue as to how old this thing may actually be. Now I start digging, most articles outside of the ones that are referenced in /. are in the 2003-2004 timeframe. I had to really dig to find ANYTHING about bleex in DARPA. This does not seem to be breaking news based on what I was actually able to find.
Now some valid points about this program were raised. My big question is what happens if said soldier/sailor/airman/marine etc is carring near max load and this thing suffers a catastrophic failure... Some special forces can handle 100 pounds of gear, but 200 pounds, catastrophic failure... In a word, Yikes!
I think DARPA will be better off looking into the cooling systems and making things smaller rather than helping us carry bigger and more...
Of course, thats just my opinion, I could be wrong...
Robert A. Wukich, Sr FF/EMT-B Sgt/USMC
My opinions do not reflect that of the USMC, Armed Forces, DoD, or anyone other than myself!
It's designed as an all-terrain vehicle, not some kind of mighty all-purpose super suit.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
Being in the military things like this make me laugh. Seriously it takes YEARS to even institute a simple change of uniform for everyone. Imagine how long it's going to take to get these ready for issue AND create new tactics for them. I would put a lose estimate around 2020 at the earlyest even if they get proper funding, which is unlikey.
wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.
from article : "Bleex 2 let operators carry 200-lb loads and run faster than 6 fps."
That is bs! I need at *least* 60 fps for it to look smooth!!
__
Seriously though, can you imagine being able to carry larger weapons farther and faster than ever possible? With the right armor, future revisions can in a sense make each soldier a "tank", carrying enough firepower to destroy a real tank. Yeah, having one fail would suck, but how's that any different than getting shot (or your rifle jammed or damaged)?
infantry training would definitely change, to learn to strap these puppies on quickly, do field repairs, let alone how to use these devices to their max capabilities.
Yeah, in a insurgency environment, it probably won't help that much when the enemy is too smart to engage us in a standup fight, but who knows, wearing a fully armored set of these might increase the odds a soldier will survive (or minimize the damage) a bomb attack. Remember, this is not even an alpha product, not ready for primetime. It sounds like the future versions will be cool! And commercial versions? You can strap one of these on and work in warehouses (woohoo!! ;-) ) or do other things that require lifting heavy stuff.
Nicely said.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
Exactly what I was thinking. Springs in pairs. Just like our muscles. The nature has solved the problem long ago. All we need to do is improve upon the design with some steel. Of course, if someone has a better grasp of thermodynamics can explain further, that'd be great.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Many of you are asking questions of "how will it perform in combat, can operators crouch/dive/roll/prepare a five course dinner/shoot/etc, and what happens when it runs out of gas?"
This is why we have the prototype stage when we build something.
When Goddard launched his first rockets, people didn't say "Yeah, but how're you going to get to the moon on that?"
You build, find the shortcomings of your design, improve, and test again.
The suit probably doesn't have any practical application now, but future versions in five - ten years might allow military mechanics to fix heavy vehicles quickly, and in 20 - 50 years, our soldiers might be able to carry better body armor into combat with less restrictions than the current body armor (which is heavy in its own right).
I like the idea that our soldiers who are being shot at will eventually be able to move faster, shoot more effectively, wear more protection, and be better equiped than their enemies.
Stephen Hawking will save us!! (see the first post from the Onion)
Nah, Robert Heinlein had powered battle suits of some kind in "Starship Trooopers". They allowed, among other things, incredible leaping (though I forget the terminology he used.)
And I'd be surprised if he were the first to do so.
BTW, a MechWarrior Battletech Battlemech, or WTH ever it is called, also goes by another name: sitting duck. In physics as is currently known, penetrating missle-bombs are way, way ahead of armor. In fact, the only viable defense against them are anti-missle missles.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Okay...
Make TMM stop using that fucking anime smile that's getting on a lot of people's nerves. Santa obviously didn't give me that one.
Make TMM stop being an egotist who must have frits psot since mommy bought his Slashdot subscription. Ignored me there, too.
Make TMM stop getting on some narcissistic ego trip just because he can use Google. So much for that one, too. Wonderful. *groan*
Hrmph. That's the last time that I leave beer and Doritos out for Santa on Christmas Eve.
Royal Marines yomped all the way from San Carlos to Port Stanley with 110lb loads in their backpacks, and had to fight along the way...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Not even accidents are is needed -- just a sustained assault from a bunch of guys with machine guns should take it down easily, or one lucky shot.
Or one grenade.
Or about a week of research and development in a backyard garage to put out a very high powered rifle, or just go buy one at the store.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Even if just a quater of every U.S. infantry man had one of these at their disposal can you imagine the logistics to keep them all going? Infantry soldiers already regularly hump 1/3 to 1/2 their weight advancing to battle, so what the hell is the point of this extra crap that the soldier has to take care of? The average US soldier has so much personal gear he wants to throw the shit at the enemy just to knock down the weight of his backpack, so this 100lb of retarded design will get them up a hill for 15 minutes then what? They're not just gonna be allowed to dump these expensive exoskeletons (not least because they could be reused by the enemy, for 15 mins!). Even if they could get this thing to last 1 hour the uses would still be severely limited due to expense and logistics. If they want to make things easier for G.I. Joe how about something useful like self healing armour or self cleaning weapons and a couple of chicks at the end of the day...
Wish I had known about this before christmas. Now I'm stuck with these stupid sweaters .
Register the editry.
6 feet/sec, 15 min charge = 1 mile maximum range
For crying out loud, these are soldiers. Save a billion research dollars and have 'em hump the gear for 15 minutes.
Besides, who wants to worry about exoskeletons when you've dropped off the gear and on your way back down the hill?
I wonder if that backpack just crams in a screwhole like my old GI JOE figures?
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
I for one, welcome out new exo-skeletalequipped, overfunded overlords.
May the Maths Be with you!
A little longer ago than I thought, but this was already posted.
Do you know why the road less traveled by is littered with the bones of the unwary?
Anybody remember the PC game Fallout? At last, Powersuits, now we are on our way to having war with China over hidden oil in the Pacific, both sides nuking each other, and having people running around glowing and the Vault Dweller going "Where the hell's the damn Water Chip?"... lol...
Anyway, the artical wasn't talking about a full power armor, more just the hydrolically powered leg braces that let people carry insane 200+ pound loads.
PS: LONG LIVE THE VAULT DWELLER!
The only problem "the nature" has solved has been the problem of how to reverse a motion produced by one muscle. The solution is to pair a second muscle with the first, so that any muscular force exerted to close a joint can be reversed by a muscular force to open the joint, and vice versa.
Nature, having a much firmer grasp of thermodynamics than you do, has not bothered trying to solve the problem of a magical system that produces a power output greater than its power input.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
I will forever be a student.
My question is why this exoskeleton? Why not some vehicle that can resist a blast from a roadside bomb?
If the military's research into new technologies for various applications had to stop because something else was also (or more) pressing, nothing would ever get done. Things like the internet we're using right now, GPS, and countless other defense initiatives overlapped in R&D and always will. Personally, I think exo-skeletons like this are most likely to be used, along with more armor, when a medic or other rescue guy needs to hop out of an armored vehicle and assist in moving a wounded 250-pound Marine into the shelter of the vehicle. Tasks like that are exactly hand-in-hand with other work done on bomb/mine-resistent personnel carriers and transport vehicles. A rescue squad is going to be a lot more likely to step out into sniper fire if they can handle their own substantial armor and carry a large, gear-laden soldier 50 yards into the clear. Also, this is how you get geeks to enlist.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
No. I said that you could double the force by doing twice as much work. I should have been more clear that you could not use this for every muscle movement, actually only about half of them.
you know what's even worse than penetrating missle bombs?
Citrus juice.
You can incapacitate any foe by spritzing citrus juices into their eyes.
well, everyone has dumbass ideas, and I know I have plenty of them. Luckily on slashdot i'm not alone. Some otherwise highly intelligent people believe in ID, can't spell definitely without an a, trust Bush, or use IE...
thanx for the explanation.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
BTW, a MechWarrior Battletech Battlemech, or WTH ever it is called, also goes by another name: sitting duck.
As anyone who has played Zone of the Enders can tell you, battlemechs have definite, er, advantages in certain departments.
Sure looks as if this technology has limited application on the battlefield. What it mainly does is turn trained soldiers into pack animals.
Okay, I can imagine a few specialized uses in which being able to carry large loads over rough terrain might be useful. Perhaps carrying a laser sighting system up a mountain, or a portable radar.
But by and large, this sort of stuff can already be done much cheaper -- by a mule.
Mules are inexpensive, easy to manage, and can be eaten when the chips are really down. They also don't disappear into untidy, million-dollar piles of metal and plastic scrap when they blunder over improvised explosive devices. Sure, they make a mess. But it's not quite as costly (other than to the mule).
You know what our military really needs, other than fewer Asian land wars? A Humvee that doesn't turn into a toaster oven when confronted with a buried surplus artillery shell. Now THAT would be worthy of an expensive Defense project.This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
... we stand a chance against the Protoss and the Zerg.
Your comment is very interesting and I'll have to go look for that book. However, I'd just like to point out that your question is not about the future, it is now.
Cruise missles, ICBMs and even just vastly superior artillery and aircraft make the "causing of pain to [other men] with no risk to [themselves]" a reality now.
Cruise missles were launched on Bagdad from ships in the Red Sea. That ship was not in any danger from the people it attacked. Even the stealth bombers that participated in the first attacks on Bagdad were not in any credible danger from Iraqi forces.
What is my point? Well, I'm not sure, execpt to point out that your question is immediate and requires thought now. We don't need to wait for robots to need the discussion.
...once the sentinels come digging and attack Zion, the last surviving city on earth, but they will still need The One to stop the Machines.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Does it come in lightish red?
An internal combustion engine? One thousand PSI of hot hydraulic fluid coursing through steel veins running throughout my lower torso and legs? And gasoline? On my back? While I'm being shot at? I'm game!
and carry the plane the rest of the way across the country?
You're scared to carry a quart of jet fuel? You PUSSY! I carried around LIVE EXPLOSIVE GRENADES STRAPPED to my CHEST. With bravery like yours' it's a wonder we win any military confllicts.
When you want something built, come see me. If you want correct grammar and spelling, get a F*ing liberal arts student.
Ha, Wallace & Gromit had them first! And as you may remember, there were some technical problems... ;)
Berkely has some interesting videos of the exoskeleton in use
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
CATS/Diebold '08- All your vote are belong to us!
1)6 feet/sec is only about 4 mph. Not too fast.
I am all for the advancement of technology to aid our military. DARPA has a lot of goodies on their shelf that many of us would like to be completed.2)I can ruck with over 100 lbs on my back for a few hours. Days without even lugging JP-4 around.
3)Do I need to carry 200lbs and sound like a chainsaw? This just makes me more of a target.
4)The user can duck and squat, but if under enemy fire could he engage and overtake? Or fall prone, return fire, and *get back up*?
Years from now Bleex will be looked at as the grandfather of the giant robot mecha tanks we send our soldier to war. Full Metal Panic anyone?
Sounds nice... but does it run Linux?
Only a psyhco would put a nuclear powerplant in one of these. As it is the enemies duty to destroy these (things are just going to be blowing up all over the place in a battle) you put your own soldiers at extreme risk, not to mention the long term danger to the environment and civilians. Your own troops are not going to want be near them! Or did you mean cold fusion?
because Cabinet isn't elected.
CATS/Diebold '08- All your vote are belong to us!
But he'll be able to take on tasks that he couldn't previously. For example, crew served weapons are wonderful, but aren't very portable. Imagine every soldier carrying one...
Imagine a single soldier carrying enough firepower to destroy a building...
Imagine a soldier carrying a ton of armour, yet able to move almost as quickly as a man, yet impervious to most weapons...
And as you note, the commercial applications will be very cool too. Me, I'm seeing the US Marines vs. the People's Army squaring off in the radioactive rubble that used to be Taiwan. Add a thumping metal soundtrack and Jerry Bruckheimer, and we've got cinematic gold!
Got to love how any military product has to have a PR photo ready first, results later.
What about video game systems?
My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
Ugly, cheap, effective, easy to fly. Scrapped. Sex sells, even in the military.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0006'
. ./asp/classes/clsDeptSearch.inc, line 521
:(
Overflow: 'CINT'
D:\INETPUB\WWWROOT\MACHINEDESIGN\LIVE\MDSITE\ASP\
----
Got there after trying to read the article's "read this" linky. Oops
Don't worry about him; he's Air Force.
Now when can I mount my LRM 20s?
It's unfortunate that English uses 's for both possession and a contraction for 'is'. Maybe we need two distinguishable apostrophes - one for possession and one for contraction.
That's not going to be a lossless transfer of energy though. And you still have to prime it initially somehow.
High-tension springs seem to be something I wouldn't want to have attached to my body during combat anyhow. Ever seen the damage a garage-door spring can do if it unleashes all it's energy at once, or fails catastrophical?
Maybe there are other ways, but I'm not convinced springs are one.
Regular underwear, long underwear, insulated shirt/pants, maybe another layer on top of that, overwhites, Bunny Boots, glove liners, Arctic Mittens, balaclava, goggles, etc. etc. Then there is skis/snowshoes/poles, Arctic canteens, and lots of gear. Then add to that a main and reserve chute if you're Airborne (like me), knife, weapons, ammo, cleaning kit, protective mask, maybe a radio and batteries, binos, rope, crampons, etc. etc.
I remember an old poster at one army post that had a pic of a guy carrying a fridge on his back, with the caption "Don't be an ass, leave it behind." I wish.
I'd like to see how this performs while climbing uphill over deadfalls in deep snow at -40 below zero.
30 percent of the carbon monoxide in northeastern U.S. comes from Alaska
They already make me wear a beret, now I have to wear some exoskeleton? There must be super secret squirrel stuff going on like Project Douchebag...
hi mom!
I'm not convinced that an exoskeleton will enable a footsoldier to take on a tank of the same tech level.
A foot soldier can already take on a tank. http://www.defense-update.com/products/r/rpg.htm
Imagine a soldier carrying a ton of armour, yet able to move almost as quickly as a man, yet impervious to most weapons...
Well, based on other posts, it looks like armor ain't what it used to be. But imagine a soldier carrying a hornet's nest of anime-style swarming missiles. He'd be a like a mobile squad-level point defense station.
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
The porn industry will make first practical use of it (think - sex-o-skeleton - and - um, horizontal soldiers)
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Forget the anti-armor missiles, a good hit in the upper portion of the thing would probably be enough to knock it down even if the round doesn't penetrate the armor. Once it's down, you could probably pick it apart pretty easily.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
So what, its got a pull-start? What about stealth? Terrorist 1: You hear something? Terrorist 2: Sounds like one hundred people mowing their lawns, nothing to worry about. TFA /.'ed, so if it meant some kind of fuel-cell business then whatever. The important thing is that I amuse myself.
Will all the looser v. loser nipple-heads stfu now?
Just as soon as the army finds some angsty 14 yr olds.
Overweight Cylons.
"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." - Tacitus
The article sounds an awful lot like it was lifted from this press release, dated March '04.
TFA is DoS'ed, so I have to ask... have there been new developments in the last couple years, or is this just a dupe from two years ago?
Indeed, that's an excellent reason why armored vehicles (like tanks) are no longer used in modern armies: a single hit into a vulnerable part can disable them. You don't use anything that is not completely, 100% perfect. Never mind that a single land-bound tank, while it lasts, can break through defenses that otherwise would be impenetrable. There simply would be no military value in a tank that can run, climb, jump - even if it has some limited flight capability. Just think of it, what if it gets destroyed while doing its job?
You mean, other than being on a Marine assault ship filled with machine guns, grenade launchers, flame throwers, and other weapons? But nooo... she has to show off.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
http://bleex.me.berkeley.edu/bleex.htm
Talk about a rehash of something old. All their media coverage is from March of 2004.
Keep my AC stalker bitching about the anime smiley. Yes!
Keep my AC stalker bitching about my first posts and the fact that I'm a supporter of Slashdot. Score!
Keep my AC stalker bitching about my occasional use of a search engine. Bonus!
Awesome! The GHB and peyote I left out for Santa on Christmas Eve really paid off!
^_^ ^_^ ^_^
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Springs could be used to increase the force exerted. You'd need to use some tool to compress the springs, such as: a lever, s pulley system, a winch, hydraulics, or pneumatics. However the problem with springs is they spring both ways in a harmonic way. Think "Absent-minded Professor" + "Flubber". Springs don't give you the kind of precision of control you might like. I wouldn't want to be inside one of these exoskeletons when it went off. I wouldn't use hydraulics either, personally. Pneumatics are much more rapid response. Add to this that I wouldn't want to put on any exoskeletal system that didn't incorporate extensive pressure and strain guages at surface contact points with feedback loops to apply proper pressures against surfaces. I have yet to see a man-made strain guage capable of this feat. Hence the reason none of our man-made spiders can compete with natural ones. Without such guages, it would be very difficult to do any task unless you plug the system into the human nervous system. While these exoskeletons may have a coolness factor, I am an unbeliever in the usefulness of them, yet.
Considering these are the weapons of choice these days in Iraq, I fail to see how this is going to protect you if a Humvee can't even stop them.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I saw a climber once with a bungie-augmented suit.
Since very little muscle effort was used to raise his arms and legs, but a lot was used to pull/push himself upwards, he strapped on bungie cords to make raising his arms and legs harder.
As a result, he temporarily stored energy from muscles he otherwise was underutilizing, and transferred it via elastics to aid the muscles he was pushing to their limits.
He claimed it made climbing much easier, though I'd hope he had a quick-release to avoid being pulled into the fetal position when he tired...
I wonder if these babies will be stocked-up with napalm, white phospherous, agent orange, 'depleted' uranium and other WOMD.
... not to mention helping out the victims of Katrina, or even just boosting public spending. When was the last time spending increased on social services over there? Or do people get locked up for asking that question these days?
Gotta love those peace-keeping missions. Keep up the good work, USA. At this rate, the world WILL be full of people wishing you blown to high heavens. Surely US taxpayers' money would be better spent making ammends with the victims of the invasion of Iraq & Afghanistan, and other countries ravaged by US foreign policy
It appears that Bleex is a Berkley project:
http://bleex.me.berkeley.edu/bleex.htm
Is this the same project? It sure looks similar, only sans green outerwear.
Cool, I found that link and is this a new meta-editorial feature allows one Slashdot story to validate other Slashodot stories or just another Slashdotting?
. ./asp/classes/clsDeptSearch.inc, line 521
Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0006'
Overflow: 'CINT'
D:\INETPUB\WWWROOT\MACHINEDESIGN\LIVE\MDSITE\ASP\
Oops...
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Natures solutions comes from trial and error. The solutions that survive the best in an environment of competition will be carried on to the next generation.
Basically, it's called evolution. If you want to call evolution ID, so be it.
Life is not for the lazy.
"If one man can cause pain to another man with no risk to himself, then it's basically torture."
;).
" one nation can make war on another nation with no risk to its own men "
It's not the "risk to its own men" that's the main issue I see.
The main issue is that nowadays _Leaders_ can get their countries to attack other nations without risking their _own_ lives significantly.
I have proposed before that in order for leaders to start an offensive war (or "offensive action"), there should be a referendum. A defensive action against an _immediate_ attack is a different story (no bullshit about they are thinking about attacking us).
If there aren't enough positive votes the proposing leaders get sentenced to death and put on death row. Say for example, 66% of total voting population need to vote for the war - if people don't bother voting you still get sentenced to die - because obviously people weren't as fired up about risking their lives as you were - they didn't bother getting off their butts to vote.
There might be a "redemption" referendum soon after for the people to decide whether they do still want those leaders alive.
If the leaders get executed but it turns out that the war was justified, one might give them the equivalent of a purple heart
If it turns out that a war was because the leaders tricked the population or were not duely diligent in presenting the correct facts, then a similar referendum will be taken.
With my proposal, even sociopathic leaders who lie when they say they regret "sending our soldiers to die" will actually think twice about it.
I am not a soldier, but I bet that it will do wonders for morale when you know the leaders sending you to risk your life, are also willing to risk their own lives for that war.
I think that's very fair right?
Last but not least: the people you are attacking will then have fewer qualms about killing your citizens since most of your citizens genuinely wanted to attack them.
If you think it is not acceptable that the 33% not for the war can also get killed, then adjust the referendum accordingly.
Anyway, I claim my proposal is still a major improvement, I'm sure there have been wars where more than 90% of the population weren't for the war but they still got dragged into it.
Unless the exoskeleton "folds easily" for transporation one might as well have a remotely controlled robotic guard, with the soldier safely somewhere else.
I suggest the military should find a way to augment or supplement human metabolic pathways. e.g. attach some equipment to a human which prevents/reduces the build up of lactic acid in skeletal muscles, and perhaps augments the energy supply to those muscles (ATP, glycogen, oxygen etc).
That way you will have soldiers that can operate in "sprint" mode without getting fatigued.
Given a suitable training regime, the soldiers will then also be able to adapt (bulk up) to carrying heavier loads faster and with less pain.
Hell just drop one of those 30,000 pound MOAB bombs near anything that lives. Unless you're in a 2 foot thick sphere of iron, the blast will pop your brains out your ears.
This idiot slashdotted himself to pump up his stats. You all should e-mail him to let him know what an idiot he is... crash the fucking e-mail server.
The US army cant even give all of its troops flak jackets so I doubt very much if we'll see platoons of exoskelton augmented troopers storming whichever middle-eastern country Bush decides to "liberate" next.
To err is human. To forgive is not company policy.
See now that is a sensible idea!
Or another application would be to fit the Field Enginears out with them, think how easy it would be to move that fallen tree, or get the jeep outa the river!
Good Point made Charcharodon.
Damingo
PAKA will take over the world one
Get hit by a bullet in the wrong place and you have 150+ pounds of useless metal attached to you. You will then just be one heap of target practice.
Do boats move with their rudder ? Do plane flap wings ? Do cars run on tripod like insects ? NO. Because the wheel proved to be more powerful than anything nature can produce, _because_ life can't flow out of a body in a wheel.
But I reckon exoskeletons have a damn coolness factor that no other machine can match.
welcome our new man-amplifier overlords.
I may be wrong, but I believe this was discussed a little in 'The Biological Time Bomb' in the late 60's by Gordon Rattray Taylor, and it does represent a big step in this area of technology.
General Electric built the same damn thing, but back in 1970. (yes, 35 years
8 22186-6189639?v=glance&n=283155
ago... they called them Man Amplifiers, and the GE design could lift a full metric
ton). All hydraulic, beautiful Dural girderwork, steel hydraulic motors and joints.
They had stand-erect versions and "walking jeeps" as well, and got a big article
in Popular Science, including "in action" photos with white-shirted, pocket-protectored,
bow-tied engineers heaving railroad ties like broomsticks.
When I got my first job and started working as an engineer at GE, 15 years later,
I saw the remains of them - rusting, on the junk pile, outside of the main R&D building
in Schenectady NY.
Now, even GE didn't *invent* them; read _Starship Troopers_ by Robert Heinlein; he talks
about the whole thing, including power limitations, but back in 1956:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0441783589/002-4
I don't think they meant "feeing", which means "to tip" or (if you're in Scotland) "to hire".
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Hate to burst your bubble, but an RPG can not take out a heavy tank...light armor yes (armoured Hummer, some APCs...light transports...etc...but heavy tank...no. Having said that, you might be able to get a *very* lucky shot from a building (high angle of attack against one of its weakest, lightly armored sections; and RPGs are known for being *VERY* inaccurate to boot) and damage its engine...not that it won't still kill you immediately after. Or, you might be able to cause it to throw a tread, which again....will still turn an kill you.
l es_javelin.php) or other seriously large and bulky missiles/rockets. Seriously, a large shape charge is required to penetrate current heavy armor...and an RPG does not qualify. Classic examples are TOWs, Dragons (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_dragon.php), and the SMAW (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_smaw.php). Obviously, Soviet weapons of the like also exist....but the RPG is not one of them. The RPG is a general purpose anti-light armor weapon; but it mostly used as an anti-personal support weapon.
To kill a tank, you need something like a Javelin (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missi
Ok, so they spend what, billions of dollars to develop this thing. And they make it carry 70 pounds of weight. And... they use that to carry... a backpack? Food?!
I don't know about the next guy, but if I'm out at war, I couldn't care less if I had 70 pounds of food with me. I can't fuckin eat with a bullet clogging my arteries, now can I? I don't want 70 pounds of food and "supplies". How about 5 pounds of food, 5 pounds of supplies, and 60 pounds of THICK ARMOR. Like level 58 paladin type invulnerable shit.
Now, for the domestic version, that's where you might have something going with the food. If Cops could carry 70 pounds of donuts, they'd only have to stop at Dunkin D's twice a day.
... I guess people will soon kill US soldiers just to get at their gear :-)
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
...and to be clear, even the Dragon is iffy against heavy armor...it's really designed to attack light and medium armor...and the SMAW is really consistently effective against light armor. Nonetheless, compare those specialized anti-tank weapons against something like an RPG...big difference!
http://www.phule.net/mirrors/unskilled-and-unawar
In 1995, McArthur Wheeler walked into two Pittsburgh banks and robbed them in broad daylight, with no visible attempt at disguise. He was arrested later that night, less than an hour after videotapes of him taken from surveillance cameras were broadcast on the 11 o'clock news. When police later showed him the surveillance tapes, Mr. Wheeler stared in incredulity. "But I wore the juice," he mumbled. Apparently, Mr. Wheeler was under the impression that rubbing one's face with lemon juice rendered it invisible to videotape cameras ( Fuocco, 1996 ).
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Shout "retard" a bit louder, you might hear yourself.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Google Metalstorm
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Back in my Air Force ROTC days, there was a plaque on one wall of our detachment building that said something to the effect of:
"You can shoot down every plane the enemy puts in the air, but if you get back to base and the lead Soviet tank commander is having breakfast in your mess hall you've lost the war, Jack." -A-10 Pilot's Axiom
-Cybrex
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
Even *I*, notorious dimwit that I am, could read the sarcasm in the GP.
Relax, dude.
I am, at this moment, working on an ambulonics (if 'avionics,' then 'ambulonics') virus that infiltrates the production versions of future exoskeletons, passes effortlessly through their battlefield transponder firewalls and allows a master control interrupt override contingency, whereby entire squads of exoskeletonally-enhanced future warfighters will have no coice but to perform sexually-obscene versions of the death scene from 'Swan Lake,' roll over like so many trained mechanical puppies, or noogie each other mercilessly while unaugmented enemy troops casually stroll past them, whistling dixie.
Did I hit a nerve there? I guess you're a battletech / giant robot fan boy. Let's put it this way, we're talking about a robot that's 20+ feet tall. It's going to be a huge target on most battlefields. It's not like it's going to be unobtrusive.
It's not going to be as mobile as you think either. A M1A1 tank weighs about 60 tons. In comparision a fully loaded F-16 is about 19 tons ( 5 tons for weapons, 8 for the airframe and 6 for fuel). Your battlemech thing is going to weigh at least as much as the M1A1 and probably a lot more. So you're going to need a huge engine to give it any sort of limited flight capacity. Don't forget the fuel for this engine as well.
It certainly won't be climbing anything either. Even if it could have enough dexterity to grab handholds and footholds, not much is going to support its weight.
As for walking or running, getting hit by enemy fire while doing either has a good chance of taking it down. When walking, a good portion of the time is spent on a single leg. Running is even worse since a part of the time when running is spent totally in the air. Getting hit when no or just one leg is supporting the thing would probably knock it off balance and take it down.
So now, you're left with a large easily seen battlemech that can only walk or run when it's not likely to come under fire. How is this any better or equivalent to a tank? It's more vulnerable, more easily seen and probably not any faster. It might be able to have more weapons but that won't do much good if the battlemech gets knocked out of comission before it can use them.
What exactly is it supposed to be achieving anyway? A hit from the main gun on a M1A1 will take pretty much anything out right now. Anything that needs more firepower can be taken out by artillery or air support both which can be out of visual sight but still effective.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it