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Raytheon Exoskeleton Brings "Iron Man" to Life

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-quite-as-flashy dept.

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.'"

5 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Alien by Bryansix · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's from Alien. Now if the suit allowed the soldier to fly then it'd be from Iron Man.

  2. Re:Raytheon by Gewalt · · Score: 3, Informative

    The power source is the plug in the wall. NOBODY has made an exoskeleton with its own power yet. Battery tech sucks, and will continue to suck for the foreseeable future.

    --
    Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
  3. 110 and 49 years ago... by dpbsmith · · Score: 2, Informative
    Exoskeletons were described by H. G. Wells in 1898, in The War of the Worlds:

    And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer.

    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:

    Our suits give us better eyes, better ears, stronger backs (to carry heavier weapons and more ammo), better legs, more intelligence (in the military meaning), more firepower, greater endurance, less vulnerability. The inside of the suit is a mass of pressure receptors, hundreds of them. You push with the heel of your hand; the suit feels it, amplifies it, pushes with you to take the pressure off the receptors that gave the order to push.


    --

    "How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!

  4. Re:I Saw It by simcop2387 · · Score: 2, Informative

    CGI = Computer Generated Imagery

  5. Re:I Saw It by hkmarks · · Score: 2, Informative

    "CGI" stands for "Computer-Generated Imagery." "CG" also stands for "Computer Graphics" but gp is not wrong.