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."

Comments

Bah.

[TripMaster Monkey]

This is not news.
It's been done before, and it's been done better.
^_^

Re:Bah.

[kryogen1x]

Yeah, I recall Mario with a similar suit, except it could go underwater!

15 minutes?

[Renraku]

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?

Re:15 minutes?

[Silicon Avatar]

First "airplane" only lifted off the ground for 15 minutes (I think?)

Which would you rather do? Ride a stagecoach for months to cross the country? or Fly for 15 minutes ...

I think you see where I'm going with this.

Re:15 minutes?

[Charcharodon]

Exoskeletons currently only have one reasonable use based on the level of developement.

Guard

Guards are high profile targets that tend to stay in one locationt. Make this thing a hybrid and give them a power cable that can disconnect easily and you give them the ability to carry a ridiculous amount of armor. Current body armor weighs in under 30 lbs. Now imagine being able to be able to wear 200lbs. Along with that instead of carrying a light carbine the standard weapon could be a much heavier rifle or squad gun.

Currently the only method of having a "big dog on a chain" at a defensive position is to have a mounted gun position or a light armored vehicle mounted gun. Neither of which are manuverable nor unable to deal with close quarters opponents at odd angles of fire and both make nice big fat targets for RPG's.

This armored exoskeleton would have most of the advantages and fewer of the disadvantages and provide the intimidation and defensive capabilities the Army is looking for. It'll be some time were you'll see long range patrols using this equipment until some large advancements can be made to the max weight and the density of the power source.

Re:15 minutes?

[PortHaven]

We who cannot think out of the box salute you!

Or point out, that the ability to move 200lbs up rugged terrain and trenches which are inaccessible by vehicle would allow a vehicle level weapon to be brought by a light mechanized infantry unit.

For example: such a system could allow a heavier caliber gatling machine gun to be mounted on a mountain side. A ordinance not normally able to be carried by infantry; to a position unreachable by vehicle. Where as currently, an infantry unit may have one heavy infantry weapon (machine gun, anti-tank weapon, bazooka, stinger, etc.) Such a system if it could be powered for prolonged use would allow every member of a squad to have heavy armament. When a platoon of mechanized infantry have the means to quickly move and engage with heavy ordinance an armored unit (tank) it makes the tanks much less viable.

Furthermore, this doesn't even address if they were to replace the ICE with a nuclear powerplant. Often the case for such a design as this specifies to design a unit that operates and functions on a powerplant of "X" amount. Then the powerplant is developed seperately and eventually substituted.

For instance, with fighter jets, most prototypes do not use final engines. Often they are told to design the jet with the expectations that the final engines will provide x thousand lbs of thrust/lbs of engine. But are first tested with engines that often do not provide such power levels. Later in the final prototypes the engines are replaced with the new final units.

I imagine the plan of feasibility is that these things will eventually run off a non ICE power plant.

Re:15 minutes?

[ffflala]

To nitpick: if you're referring to the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, it was around 90 seconds long.

Bleex 2

[ch-chuck]

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"

Already in testing

[grub]

Here is Lieutenant Ripley testing the device.

civilian use

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

that's great...

[User 956]

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?

Boom!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Boom!

[kraut]

Surely as a member of the military you will do whatever you're bloody well told to do; isn't that the whole point?

Article

[evoltap]

I think this is the link we want http://machinedesign.com/asp/viewSelectedArticle.a sp?strArticleId=59627&strSite=MDSite&catId=2

Falling down

[ewg]

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!

Tin soliders...

[__aaclcg7560]

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.

Re:Tin soliders...

[imsabbel]

you would be surprised how overblown the "dangers of emp" really are for hardened equipment.

Hint: if this thing is for battlefield use, it wont have exposed cables/sockets. The whole exteriour will be a groundplane.
Any EMP strong enough to kill it would electrocute you via your tooth cavity filling, too.

(emps work well vs cities, not military units. just like biological/chemical weapons...)

Re:Geek's Dream

[TCQuad]

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!"

Book recommendation and a discussion question

[lilmouse]

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

Now we know

[SuperKendall]

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.

Re:Are hydraulic exoskeletons the only way?

[susano_otter]

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.

Will they issue "LifeAlert" with this?

[mmell]

"Help. I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Re:If they only up-armored it

[vertinox]

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.

Politics is a contact sport.

[Anonymous Coward]

"If a group of men can do it to a different group of men, what is it?"

Congress.

Re:If they only up-armored it

[B3ryllium]

A term has already been coined for this kind of armored exoskeleton system:

MechWarrior.

Too many questions, not enough answers

[Robbyboy]

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!

Re:Prototype includes legislator-ready PR photo

[Scrameustache]

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.

I was watching a documentary on the race to build the next generation fighter jet, and time and time again, the main argument in favor of the X22 was that the other design looked weird.

Yeah, plan your multi-billion dollar expenses on the sexiness of the machine boys, not on the functionality. I too get "the willies" thinking that people this infantile are sitting with their finger on the metaphorical nuclear button.

Where you are?

[core plexus]

During my time in the Army, I've been in Desert, Jungle, Temperate, and Arctic environments. The toughest, by far, is the Arctic.

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

Re:If they only up-armored it

[tftp]

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?