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Human Exoskeletons Getting Closer
ColdWetDog writes "It's not Sigourney Weaver tossing aliens about, but The Register has an interesting blurb about a real human-capable exoskeleton that looks pretty cool (Lockheed-Martin press release). Runs for three hours at 3 mph on internal batteries; max speed is 7 mph. Of course, no price is listed but I suppose if you have to ask you can't afford it. Team this up with a Big Dog and you've got the ultimate high-tech cross-country team. Bring your own batteries. Or just wait for your jetpack to arrive."
Seems you have to stand spread-eagle and shout "Power Extreme" to start it up :(
GrpA
Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
Max speed is 10 not 7.
Companies have been making exoskeletons ever since the "Hardiman" of the 1960s. While more modern versions have actually bordered on the practical (see the suit worn by Ripley in the movie Aliens... that is a real machine), they have always had to drag a power tether in order to do anything useful. Of course they did not show that part in the movie.
The decision to do away with arms, for now, was probably a good one. One can still carry heavy loads, which is the main point.
The Honda Walking Assist device has a rather unique and elegant design:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2191712/honda_walking_assist/
Projects like this are always limited by a single factor: energy density.
Loads of heavy batteries that only seem to last an hour or so, or loud, smelly, fault-prone ICEs are par for the course. See, millions of years of evolution have resulted in bodies that are surprisingly efficient in a wide variety of circumstances and pack loads of energy into a very little weight. When your body truly runs out of energy in sustained exhaustion, it can even burn its own motor (muscle tissue) for a last bit of energy!
The problems are many and severe. It will be a while before exoskeletons are worth much.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
The user can hump 200lb with relative ease while marching in a HULC
So...many...jokes...
No, I'm suggesting that in a time where much of the country has been stirred into anti-immigrant sentiment, anti-intellectual sentiment, an all or nothing mindset, a with us or against mindset, and a government with policies to match, that people were able to elect someone who speaks clearly in full sentences instead of jingos and soundbites, who has a background living in many different parts of this great country and experiences exceeding that of most Americans, and who is progressive thinking, inclusionist, and open-minded.
Maybe you think he's special because he's black. I don't know what that says about you. You can figure that out yourself.
But it says a lot about the American people at that one brief moment in time to have chosen someone so at odds with the general zeitgeist. I'm not talking about Obama as President here. I'm talking about the opportunity to change and grow as Americans. The article and video showing off this technology as a military tool leaves me less hopeful.
I don't hate America, I love it. I wish only the best things for this country.
But I hate articles like this, and I hate the truly American values it reveals.
Why is it that when Americans think of powered exoskeletons, the first thing they think of is soldiers?
War and military industry just tend to do that: invent things to help you win the battles easier. It's always been like that.
War (even the one now in Iraq) is a quite good accelerator for military industry research and the industry creates a variety of products during a war. The bigger the war the bigger the influence on technology.
Even though it's bad that the things are developed for the military, the research eventually helps normal people: when the war ends, the military companies start selling licenses for the products or continue researching to create a product for consumer markets.
War so far has been a huge boost in techonology, if you think inventions like nuclear power, radar, V2 missiles, which later on lead to the Saturn V, medical breakthroughs (especially in first aid) etc.
Impact of the war on technology is just something you just can't deny.
My question to you would be... why does the intent matter?
Though a tremendous portion of the American annual budget goes toward the Military-Industrial Complex, a tremendous amount also goes toward initiatives such as DARPA, which helps fund more applied research than almost anyone, and in support countless universities and research centers. We have commercial air travel today because the US military helped jump start the commercial aviation sector before World War 2 (The Luftwaffe alone had more planes the all the Allies combined, and we knew we'd need private commercial help manufacturing aircraft in those quantities). The internet itself exists because the US military was seeking a way to maintain communications in the event that a major city was destroyed with an atomic bomb, causing a disruption in telephone communications. We have atomic energy because of the Manhattan Project, we have mass-produced Penicillin because of World War 2, along with radar, jet propulsion, and the birth of rocketry. Even going back to the Revolutionary War, the US government invested heavily in mechanized manufacturing and research into interchangeable parts for firearms.
The fact is that the military is often willing to make investments into technologies that no one else is willing to even look at. Our investments in war have done terrible things. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, countless deaths in every war we've been in, etc. But many of these wars and conflicts would have taken place without the technology, and without the investments we've made into the military. The fact is that technology, in particular engineering, advances by leaps and bounds when war is at it's heels. Though we should never forget the cost at which it comes, it's important to realize that technology often has ripple effects and sometimes, like the internet, it becomes something wholly different than what was intended.
Why not just put wheels on the backpack? Then you could pull it at ground level no back problems, saves bazillions of dollars.
I can see the product slogan: Real American soldiers don't climb stairs—they level the building.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Am I the only person to see the uses? I want an air conditioner when I step outside. I want to not be limited to my own physical strength. I want to run without getting tired. I want to walk down to the hardware store... for 50 bricks and some fertilizer. I want to jump up onto my house's roof. I want a backup air supply just in case. And since I'm not limited by weight, why not a backup com system, a palmtop computer, a couple of extra batteries, a first aid kit, a change of clothing, and the other stuff people put in their cars and have to go back to their cars for. I want to lay aside concerns of endurance. I want to carry my six years old son about all day. I want to jack up my car by looking around for a sturdy piece of something, lifting that side of the car, and propping it up. I want to carry home six shopping bags without sweating. I want to carry heavy boxes sometimes. I want to wear a set of airbags that will tripple my chances of surviving most accidents. I want to punch through a wall, throw a big rock, run up to the top of a skyscraper. I want to hike to the top of Mount Fuju without stopping OR taking 6 months to get into shape. I want to take my dog out for a run at his speed. I want to climb mountains after learning how, not after an extensive weightlifting regime. I want to transplant a tree without heavy equipment. I want to fight a bear, catch a horse, hold down an aligator. I want to say a permanent goodbye to being physically inferior to any animal. I want to clean my house all day, play with my sons for hours, fix my roof, and mow the lawn without getting too tired. I want this suit!
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
"a tremendous portion of the American annual budget goes toward the Military-Industrial Complex"
Ah yes, I know, this is slashdot, and I'm going to get modded troll/flaimbait, but just for your edification, our Federal government was created with a very limited amount of powers in mind, most of which were focused DIRECTLY at military affairs. I'm not sure why people whine and complain that the government spends tons of cash on defense but not on XYZ, when its the job of the government to spend money on defense.
For a list of enumerated powers (not the squishy interpreted ones), check out:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A1Sec8
I'm glad to see the government spend money on things it is SUPPOSE to... now if it would just cut out the shit that its not (like social security, Medicare, ponies, butterflies, and good will towards men).
20th century Marxism is not progress...
I know you are BadAnalogyGuy, but I'll give this a try.
What you are trying to say is that America was used to Paris Hilton, and then at one brief moment in time chose to elect Angelina Jolie.