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DIY 18-ft.-High Robotic Exoskeleton
Hacx sends along a piece from PopSci that begins "Carlos Owens had handled all kinds of machines as an army mechanic, but he always dreamed of using those skills for one project: his own 'mecha,' a giant metal robot that could mirror the movements of its human pilot. Owens, 31, began building an 18-foot-tall, one-ton prototype at his home in Wasilla, Alaska, in 2004. Working without blueprints, he first built a full-scale model out of wood. Moving on to steel, he had to devise a hydraulics system that would provide precisely the right leverage and range of movement. He settled on a complex network of cables and hydraulic cylinders that can make the mecha raise its arms, bend its knees, and even do a sit-up. ... He foresees mechas having uses in the military and the construction industry, but acknowledges that right now they're best suited to entertainment. The first application he has in mind: mecha-vs.-mecha battles, demolition-derby style."
Wasila, Alaska? The killer app for this device is to put a set of high-heels on it and have it run as the GOP Veep candidate in 2012 - all puny mortals bow down before Mecha Palin, or be crushed!
Only the Obamabot can save us!
The whole idea of mecha robots is plain wrong. It's not necessary to make an exoskeleton that big. In a military (or 'gaming') situation it'd just present a bigger target. All you need is a minimal amount of armour with enough power to augment picking up large amounts of weight, and possibly some system to dampen recoil if you're holding a projectile weapon.
(Oh dear. I'm actually arguing that mecha robots are a poor weapons system design on the internet. Is this what my life has become? Maybe I should go outside?)
http://twitter.com/onion2k
This seems really familiar.
I'm pretty sure this is the same mech a couple of years back. He's probably mad a little progress since then.
There have been some military projects, but the problem is that anything which can lift over a tonne one-handed requires a power supply too big to attach to the suit itself.
How do you kill that which has no life?
In Here there's a video of an experimental Raytheon exoskeleton for the US army. It seems that we're a long way from seeing something like "starship troopers" especially because there's a conspicous umbilical cord in the Video, probably for the external power source and computer controls. While Moore's law can cope with computing requirements, there's nothing similar in power production, and especially in power density.
Novody would want a battery powered exoskeleton with a 10 minutes charge.
"If a boss demands loyalty, give him integrity. But if he demands integrity, give him loyalty." (John Boyd, 1927-1997)
They're called Fork Lift trucks. In reality, Mechs/walkers are never a good solution. Hard to balance and inefficient. In Mecha anime/manga they usually make up some pseudosience as to why they're using walkers and not tanks and planes.
People are approaching the idea of mecha ass-first.
These proposed engineers of mayhem mostly treat "BIG FUCKING ROBOT OH YEAH" as an end in itself. In any semi-realistic context mecha should be seen as something that naturally evolves into being as agile, versatile exoskeletons are made progressively more powerful; you have to work up to big with a design where everything else works superbly, you can't work from big down. Otherwise any advantage gained by size will be hugely offset by the sad fact that the thing moves like a turtle in molasses.
Mecha become reasonable when they can move and maneuver with the same agility as a human being -- think Eva, which can run, dodge and so on with considerable finesse. (Here's waiting for those carbon nanotube aerogel artificial muscles, by the way.) But since we can't even do that for a human-sized exoskeleton, any effort to build a mecha that's not severely dysfunctional is going to be impotent.
Here's a really short video of it in action
Here's the designer talking about it
And here's his website (under construction, but with some technical info)
Why lie when you can just make up stuff and claim it to be true?
It has red eyes! It means it's a decepticon! RUN FOR YOU LIVES!!!!!!!!!
The website for Carlos Owens is http://neogentronyx.com/, where he has a few more photos and other projects...
I did say "power", but what I was referring to was the systems meant to support the suit's hydraulics. It would be more like a hose.
How do you kill that which has no life?
And according to his site, he's managed to spend $5000 on a valve. This guy has been around for a long while, made plenty of wild claims, and demonstrated absolutely nothing. Several times in the past he's attempted to sell this ting on ebay, and failed every time. He's basically a laughing stock.
I'd say human design is also hard to balance and inefficient yet, that's how it turned out after hundreds of millions of years of evolution.
Well if you want to be able to go long distances you'd probably want all the hydraulics stuff self contained on the unit itself otherwise you're going to have to deal with some crazy pressures (or very large diameter hoses I suppose) and a lot of power to drive the fluid. I'm not a hydraulics expert but the company I do IT for design and manufacture dredgers that use hydraulics. Our normal dredgers would probably operate down to about 500 metres at most, not entirely sure, but we are designing a deep water (max of 3000 metres) system that has a self contained hydraulics system powered electrically from the surface. Obviously that would add a lot of extra bulk and complexity and it would probably be better just to use a bunch of electric motors instead?
which is totally what she said
He completed and was trying to sell the mech suit like 4 years ago. This story is almost as old as the internet itself. Slashdot's editors are really slacking these days.
It's very difficult to evolve wheels, and the concrete floors/roads that make them so efficient.
If he hasn't built in any restrictions I predict a posthumous Darwin Award the moment the guy tries to absently scratch his nuts :-)
Insert
He's probably mad a little progress since then.
Absolutely. He used to be a raving lunatic.
Another few years and he should be quite sane.
(ps: use commas, your sentences are hard to read)
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
I agree with you, in the context of a weapon. But consider how useful this could be for construction. The ability to lift large objects (like beams) into position could be quite useful.
A four-legged version might be more useful, however.
Place nail here >+
True, but that may have just been the author of the article saying that he designed and built it from scratch, he wasn't following any plans that someone else made
By Sarcos corporation. This one is a bit smaller, and has no grippers yet, but the arms and legs function. IN fact, the arms and legs are *more* agile and human-like than in the Aliens movie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhj3Z9o6t0g
Then, I'll be ready to invest. Or run. "ALASKA'S LIBERATION IS IMMINENT!"
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
umm...the shot was taken from a lowered perspective to be able to get the mecha and the people in the frame while still being close enough to discern who they are
similarly, i'm pretty sure this picture isn't definitive proof that the statue of liberty is only 15 ft tall
-- D-23994, Muff#2613
I for one... oh nevermind.
Concrete roads don't exist where the military often wants to be. That's why tanks were developed. Get something that goes over terrain better than a tank, and you would have a great defense contract.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Soviet troops
Huh? The Sovs had their hands full with Jerry, and didn't declare war on Japan until Aug. 8, 1945.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Manchuria
* Khingan-Mukden Offensive Operation (August 9, 1945 - September 2, 1945)
* Harbin-Kirin Offensive Operation (August 9, 1945 - September 2, 1945)
* Sungari Offensive Operation (August 9, 1945 - September 2, 1945)
* South Sakhalin Army Group Offensive Operation (August 11, 1945 - August 25, 1945)
* Seisin Landing Operation (August 13, 1945 - August 16, 1945)
* Kurile Landing Operation (August 18, 1945 - September 1, 1945)
Point being, the Japanese were rolled over by Soviet armor. Armor didn't really play as much of a role in the island-hopping campaigns and so their infantry was able to put up more of a fight in the jungles. In the open against tanks, they were woefully unprepared.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne