Slashdot Mirror
Raytheon Exoskeleton Brings "Iron Man" to Life
An anonymous reader writes "Raytheon is bringing 'Iron Man' to life, according to EETimes. 'The movie opens in theaters worldwide today, but the real "iron man" has already been under construction at Raytheon Company (Salt Lake City, Utah) since 2000. Raytheon's Exoskeleton project is the brainchild of project leader Stephen Jacobsen and is being funded by the U.S. Army. The project, according to the company, permits soldiers to don an Exoskeleton suit that amplifies their strength — enabling them to lift 200-pound payloads without tiring.'"
must be a crap film if they have to market it on slashdot twice in week
heavy marketing = film wont stand up for itself
#DeleteChrome
... for consulting and testing...
that it can only be used by alcoholics
if it is used by anyone else, the suit is not an iron man, it is a war machine
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
is but ONE of many who develop such stuff.
The exo-skeleton concept has been around for
MANY years, just grab an old copy of Popular
Science from the 1960's. The subject was
"Man Amplifiers". Nothing to see here.
That's from Alien. Now if the suit allowed the soldier to fly then it'd be from Iron Man.
Soldiers are instructed to:
1) receive an injection of medicine in the butt
2) put on a suit (could be army fatigues, NFL logo uni, doesn't really matter).
3) If anyone asks about #1, tell them it was flaxseed oil and/or Vitamin B-12
Test subjects were reportedly able to lift 200 lb. objects repeatedly without tiring.
Not a novel idea. I once wore a muscle suit to impress the ladies. The outcome of which was rather undesirable when their football-playing weight-lifting boyfriends beat me up; and signified my quick return to cowardly posting in anonymity on Slashdot.
for a topless sunbathing scene
Yea, those look exactly the same.
It's like saying we already have jetpacks then pointing at a trampoline.
or else!
It's like the "Anti-V for Vendetta" movie.
Unadulterated fascist, racist propaganda of the lowest intent - with crypto-homoeroticism as the cincher. In other words: more American "culture".
If you want to brainwash your 14-year-old into thinking corporate executives are "cool" and that weapon systems are "hot" - send 'em. Maybe they'll sign up to die in an endless war on Terra!
Just make sure they're really gullible and ignorant. It's a pretty transparent setup.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
What the heck does ballyhooed mean?
It means it was the subject of an Indian Musical film, my dear.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/04/17/rent-a-hal-robot-sui.html
It may not have the same MAX strength gain but:
a) doesn't still require a tether
b) has a much lower profile
c) You can already RENT IT.
EA David Gardner -"... but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun."
The article has a picture comparing the suit from the movie to the Raytheon one... Am I the only one who thinks they look almost nothing alike?
On a side note, the movie technically premiered at 8PM on May 1 (that's yesterday). Not today.
That EETimes.com story missed one ability of the Raytheon suit:
waste millions of government cheese making pointless boondoggle equipment that has the same basic functionality as a forklift...Wave of the FUTURE!
Hell, the Iron Man suit can't even compete with that!
Thank you Dave Raggett
No, that would be an endoskeleton.
The ocean parts and the meteors come down
Laid out in amber, baby.
you know... I was just about to hang up my safety goggles commuting to work.
One of the links in the article leads to a page about a company called Cyberdyne creating a robotic exoskeleton named HAL... http://www.cyberdyne.jp/English/robotsuithal/index.html
What else should we expect from a major defense contractor ?
:P
Maybe if a job requires a human to lift 200lb payloads, that job should be redesigned. Throwing 42 quadrillion dollars at an engineering problem for one task is kinda sorta super dumb when the problem can be eliminated entirely with a few brain cells and a case of dr pepper. I don't even know what they're doing, but I'm pretty sure they could streamline it so a simple machine does the heavy lifting, and a simple human pushes the button for their 6-figure income.
Besides, Iron Man sucks. Flying two-tone slab of steel from the 60's, just as weak as every other Marvel B-list movie adaptation (see: Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Punisher). What next, The Falcon ?
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Anyway, I'd much rather someone work on a chickenleg mech. They just look cooler, and they're equally as impractical.
Well twitter, considering the demographics of the vast majority of people who will watch this movie, it's safe to say that your self-aggrandizing concerns about that are unimportant.
By the way, I lost track of your sockpuppets in the last few days. How many now, ten? twelve?
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
Of course, these exoskeletons were piloted by Martians, not humans.
Exoskeletons also appeared in Robert Heinlein's 1959 (or was it 1958 in the magazine serial?) Starship Troopers:
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
The primary problem with an exoskeleton, at least as it pertains to front line combat use, is and, as far as I know, remains the massive heat signature generated by the internal combustion engine that is required to pressurize the hydraulic components (a battery powered compressor would probably be impractical and not any less heat generating). Anyone wearing this exoskeleton would show up like the sun on infrared making them vulnerable to the types of heat seeking missiles or automated guns that would normally target vehicles and other substantial heat sources. If you are going to have the heat problem then why not just use a vehicle which can mount the heavy weapon on the chassis, carry some exhaust cooling shrouds, and provide more armor than the exoskeleton? The exoskeleton doesn't make much sense, at least in my opinion, for front line operations or at least not it its present form. It doesn't offer enough advantages over a vehicle to make it worthwhile to accept the same or similar set of drawbacks (i.e. generating large quantities of waste heat).
Anyone remember there were the 30+ story mechs along with the mini body-suit mechs? The pic in the article looks just like the beginning of those mini ones. So by that reasoning around the turn of the next millennium we'll have the huge ones, but any dedicated gamer saw this coming well over a decade ago. Can't wait for trial by combat!
Am I the only one who was reminded of Gray Fox/"Cyborg Ninja" from Metal Gear Solid?
I sure hope they've addressed the Top Eleven Problems with Having an Iron Suit?
Once upon a time, when arms companies were owned by families, the movie may have been less than fantasy. There have been a few arms makers who turned to things like sewing machines and not always with loss of fortune. Today, arms companies are huge multinational companies without a soul. They will make and market whatever killing machines they can. Raytheon will make and sell this suit to anyone waging wars of aggression and shirk the responsibility as "it's up to politicians to make war and peace".
At this point, even that excuse is worthless. The US trades with and is becoming harder to tell apart from China. It is better now to now work for arms makers because the arms are not being used for conquest and oppression instead of the preservation of liberty.
King Kong Lived?
"Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences at McMaster, has determined that Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate that ever lived, roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years...
It's pathetic and demeaning to the real scientists. Of course it makes the original publication and Slashdot look like whores too, but they don't have any credibility to lose.
The automobile had no military value when it was first invented either. It was slow, cumbersome and weak. Now look at military transports and tanks today. As you said, "at least not in its present form". You've gotta start somewhere.
he "Iron Man" exoskeleton being worked on by Robert Downey Jr. in the movie (left) is eerily similar to the real Exoskeleton (right) being developed at Raytheon.
eerily? Side by side I can hardly tell them apart. I can't see why they wasted money on CGI.
The movie itself is an advertisement for non free software
.... if it runs Windows, I will rush to the store to buy THAT version. =)
I actually watched the movie yesterday, and it was quite nice.
Now one thing I assure you, with all the features that stark's armor have properly working and with a fast start up time like that
What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
When I was in the army, I could lift 110 kilograms and I wasn't exactly a jock. So I fail to see the utility of this contraption, unless American GIs are really, really puny...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Although I'm guessing Raytheon must have purchased it somehow.
Trivia: the same company that developed the exoskeleton also made the animatronic dinosaurs for the jursassic park ride @ Universal Studios.
Trivia: Sarcos worked very closely with the Center for Engineering Design @ the University of Utah. IMHO a very interesting collaboration between the academic and commercial worlds.
I did some research work there during my bioengineering days and one of my friends worked on the project...
Evolution: love it or leave it
Exoskeleton? No, HARD SUIT!
Knight Sabers, ACTION!
Just giving us the Aliens powerloader would be impressive. Robocop would be even more impressive. But the Iron Man suit strays far into unobtanium territory. Antimatter powerplant, antigrav flight, there ain't no way we're getting something like that for another 50 years. That'd be like rolling out the first Sopwith Camel and saying we've made good progress towards the F-22.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
You do realize that the movie, which is the Iron Man origin story with Obadiah Stane as the villain, isn't connected to the new comic book story line, with Stane's son Ezekiel, right? Same hero, different villains, different writers, different medium.
Then again, based on your latest no-right-to-reply journal entry, you seem to think that Iron Man is a new character created by the makers of this movie, and the new anti-open-source comic book, the latest in a series that was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, was some cheap money-grubbing tie-in, not one of Marvel's most enduring heroes.
Had you really not heard of Iron Man before this movie, or do you just think we're stupid?
Western militaries have not been fighting opponents well equipped with heat seeking AT missiles for a long time. Even against some insurgent with an RPG, powered armour is going to take less casualties then ordinary troopers on foot or in a humvee, because it will have all over armour proof against shrapnel. A direct hit on a PA will kill the soldier, a direct hit on a humvee can kill a whole squad.
PA will be an absolute boon for taking out insurgents in a dig in position, when heavy fire power cannot be used (which is quite often in an urban environment).
========
CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
Clippy could be a PITA:
"Looks like you have raised your arm and engaged weapons:
O Do you want to incinerate your victim?
O Do you want to launch homing micro-rockets?
O Are you writing a letter?
O Were you just going to scratch your nose?"
AT&ROFLMAO
>Maybe if a job requires a human to lift 200lb payloads, that job should be redesigned. Geez, dude, don't you ever have dreams about doing cool shit? Ever dream about aiming above the mark? Don't be a wet towel.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
What, no love for Justin Hartley?
I saw the film last night (in the UK) and it was one of Marvel's better efforts. For those who like the comics and haven't seen it yet, stay to the end of the credits to see an extra scene which gives a nod to the rest of the Marvel Universe.
Andy.
Hello again Jeremiah Cornelius (don't know IF you remember me or not, but, I am the guy who commented on your nic here once & we had a nice conversation (you told me you stand 7' tool & are black etc. et al):
I had a COMPLETELY different take man (& I am NOT into war... it's wasteful, & people die, but sometimes, it IS, how it is (as I am sure you well know))... anyhow/anyways:
It's a HELL of a good film, with a GOOD message (plus a good time, good acting (Robert Downey Jr.'s back by ALL means & Jeff Bridges was awesome)), go see it!
(I did last night, & it was well worth the $10 U.S. Dollars I spent on it (approximiately that amount) & I haven't felt that way about a film in theaters for a long time!)
I used to read that Marvel comics series 2 decades ago as a boy, & I was FAR from "let down"... Robert Downey Jr. does a PERFECT "Tony Stark"!
Imo, @ least? It's a film about "DOING THE RIGHT THING", instead of worshipping the "Holy dollar" (which seems to be the trend leading this planet into a 'downward spiral' as of late, imo @ least), which the world today needs a LOT more of.
Mainly I say that, because of the message & realization that Tony Stark came to... no more war machine outta Stark Industries!
(What I'd like to see next, especially since "The Incredible Hulk" is coming out soon (starring Edward Norton, another great contemporary actor imo @ least)? Is for Marvel to "shoot the moon" & do "THE AVENGERS" (original crew, or near to it, of: Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Ant-Man (also rumored to be an upcoming pre-production phase project by Marvel), & the Wasp (if not Capt. America too)).
APK
P.S.=> The end's VERY cool too, when he says" "The truth is... I AM IRON MAN!"... apk
It may be near useless on the front line, but it may prove very useful in a support role. Loading & unloading heavy equipment & ordinance in places where a forklift is too bulky or clumsy. Doing things intended to be done by hand, but would wear out an un-assisted laborer.
Not everything the army does happens on the battlefield you know.
True enough I guess, but what if they develpoed them for personal use? Imaging WWE meets Battlebots and you'll see where I'm going with this, it'd be the best sport ever made!
I remember! And I remember the "out of band" communications. Nice to hear from you. Glad you enjoyed it, yourself.
:-)
Yeah. I gotta go lighter! I was coming down with the flu when I saw this - and got grumpier from there...
Still - the film seems to promote some fantasy about who the military/industrial elite are, and that there are individuals in those positions who can act singularly - out of conscience - for the benefit of humanity.
Tony Stark is like a comic book John Galt. I can't stand Ayn Rand, either.
Ultimately, the film was produced with help and cooperation of the USAF.
The "chair force" have moved themselves to the forefront of the Military mission of generating propaganda and conducting surveillance on the world's civilian populations - including US domestic operations. You don't need to do much more than search for "Air Force" on Slashdot and Wired.com's Danger Room to see how insidious and corrupting this has become.
Nick Turse talks about how this has evolved: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032008T.shtml
But Marvel Comics has gone as far as hiring Active Duty USAF officers on duty in Israel to write for them! And they boast about it!
So, yeah. I had a hard time seeing this as an entertainment, when I had the continual creepy feeling it was a PsyOp.
I'd rather see The Ipcress File, The Conversation, or Three Days of the Condor.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
S'awright on feeling "grumpy/down", because I do it @ times myself...
Heck - For me, sometimes just watching the nightly news @ night (assuming it too, is not "propoganda" & "editorially watered down" & that DOES happen, I know & admit that) can do that to me, & especially NOWADAYS (things are bad in the states imo @ least, & going to be a bit worse until it gets better (especially on the economic front)).
So, don't worry about the "lighten up" part, because MAYBE, you're right (or not)... I hope not. It's a pretty grim outlook, but then, I have to take your POV into account too, & not just hold mine only (this is what good conversation's about after all, to enlighten & show diff. points-of-view, to cover ALL possible bases + come to the "right" conclusions hopefully).
----
SIDE-NOTE: Heh, you are only the 2nd person in this life that's mentioned "Ayn Rand & John Galt" to me, iirc, ala ATLAS SHRUGGED. This tells me you're a well-read man, & imo, not many folks are.
(AND, it appears that you are like myself in 1 respect: You are an "archivist" of data & links to supporting data online via your webbrowser... lol, cool! Makes for GOOD supporting arguments in posts, this IS certain! I was not aware of the data in the links you supplied... Officer Yocum's intervew wasn't the one that got to me (in your statement about Marvel), but more the other one... I had NO IDEA the military funded films in THAT manner, & to that extent over time... that one tended to support your statements a HECK of a lot more, enlightened me too, & got me thinking along YOUR lines in fact - but, I still love this nation, no matter what (she's my home))
----
Thus - Am I doubting your position (that the military uses films & the media in somewhat "insidious ways" + their "pull" to make stuff they support go to the "forefront" of media & such?)?
No, I really do NOT doubt it - War is their "raison d'etre", & promoting it (or, a "feeling of patriotism" in folks IS in their best interests).
Still, becaues Tony Stark does NOT want STARK INDUSTRIES to be a major part of the "war effort/war machine" anymore, I think they MAY have "backfired" here on that account IF they were out to do that...
(Heh - That'd be like the DEA saying "NO MORE INVOLVEMENT IN THE 'WAR ON DRUGS'" & it's their very reason to be (which is why I think they do NOT just out & out stop it by invading Columbia & just poisoning the Coca plantations outright)). They COULD pull that off no sweat I imagine & win (but then, where would all the street dope that keeps them in a job come from? 10,000 folks outta work right off the bat, as Denzel Washington stated, in "American Gangster")).
The world can be a REALLY "Dirty Place" & lots of "psychological warfare" does go on, & is directed OUR WAY especially, as the tax-paying consumer public...
APK
P.S.=> I hope you're not right, but there are times I totally agree with you... but, take heart in 1 thing @ least - that folks took it "my way", as an "antiwar" message, more than "Pro-war" ones... apk
... it makes you sound stupid. Does it now. Tell me, do you hear a lot of stupid? Well, I remember a wise man once saying stupid is as stupid does. STEP AWAY FROM THE STUPID
College-Pages.com - Online Colleges, Degrees, and Programs
Why does it say to wait until the end of the credits. Does something happen then?
"I mean the kind of tiresome American who thinks that the two solutions to the current bad president are revolution or magical panacea of the democratic party."
/.er, who's country has ridings that openly support and elect fascists?
How do you bring to power, in the United States, a third political party? A country that has been dominated by two political parties for a century. The best part about the so-called democracy of America is that when a new political movement emerges, the existing parties criminalize them. Red scares, green scares, etc etc
The solutions really seem to be revolution or the magical panacea.
What would you suggest? - oh wise British
Surely you can think of a method to defeat the Republicans in power that does not involve the Democrats, mass organized protest or violence.