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The Effort To Create an 'Iron Man' Type Exoskeleton

Posted by samzenpus on from the hulkbuster-armor dept.

Nerval's Lobster writes: Tony Stark, as played by Robert Downey, Jr., is the epitome of suave wit—but without his metal shell, he's just another engineer who's made good. The exoskeleton is a technology platform that, while young, is gaining traction in industrial, medical and military circles. For several years, the U.S. Special Operations Command has been working on a Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or "TALOS," that would provide "provide [infantry with] comprehensive ballistic protection and peerless tactical capability," in the words of Gen. Joseph Votel, SOCOM's commander. Meanwhile, several companies—including Raytheon, Ekso Bionics and US Bionics—are working on products that could help the disabled become more mobile, or allow warehouse and other workers to handle physical tasks with greater efficiency and safety. That means people who specialize in robotics, artificial intelligence, and other areas have an increasing opportunity to get involved. According to Homayoon Kazerooni, president of Berkeley-based US Bionics and a professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, control and software engineers are the leads in developing these next-generation products. Although he can't estimate the ultimate size of the market for these intelligent exoskeletons, Kazerooni describes the industry as "fast-growing, but infant," with "very diverse uses" for the suits. Just don't expect the aforementioned suits to allow you to fly or blow anything up anytime soon.

52 comments

  1. Why make it a suit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why make a suit? Why not just a humanoid drone operated by a remote pilot?

    1. Re:Why make it a suit by sims+2 · · Score: 1

      Latency.

      Mostly just for fun..The same reason we send people to space.

      --
      Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
    2. Re:Why make it a suit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because sometimes targets are under trees, in buildings, hiding under a tarp perhaps...?

      Not everything can be death by remote control

    3. Re:Why make it a suit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why make a suit? Why not just a humanoid drone operated by a remote pilot?

      You are a fatty aren't you? You sit in your gamer chair sweating and eating cheetos all day long. Your fingers are orange in color and you smell of sweat and desperation.

    4. Re:Why make it a suit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Mostly just for fun..The same reason we send people to space."

      Hoooo boy, the Space Nutters will nail your hide to an asteroid for that. Space is the holy salvation of the human species, it is full of resources, and is the only way the species will survive. It not "fun", it is serious, serious business.

    5. Re:Why make it a suit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Space is Really Far Away. Very little on Earth is Really Far Away, especially from AWACS and carrier groups.

    6. Re:Why make it a suit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're talking about military application, I'm pretty sure that they will have sufficient coverage if they want it. In warehouse settings, management has all the ability in the world to toss in enough wifi to make whatever they want work.

      Why waste space trying to leave room for a human operator AND try to figure out how to boost their own muscles? Eliminate the rider and fill that cavity with a small turbo-diesel, along with proper robotics for movement instead of a stupid meat-assist.

    7. Re:Why make it a suit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The word for what you just typed is "projection"

  2. Energy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Much like the movie, it's all about the energy source, the mechanics are a solved problem already.

    1. Re:Energy by nabsltd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Much like the movie, it's all about the energy source, the mechanics are a solved problem already.

      The mechanics of how to keep a man from being turned to jelly when the suit gets tossed into a nearby building by the Hulk have been solved?

      Seriously, though, there will never be an exoskeleton as maneuverable and fast as the Iron Man suit, since there is no way to protect the occupant from mistakes that cause sudden deceleration. Even a fast turn could be deadly.

    2. Re:Energy by holmstar · · Score: 2

      Fill the suit with fluid of similar density to human tissue, ideally including a breathable liquid. As long as the suit is sealed and rigid enough, this would VASTLY increase the g-forces that the human body could withstand.

    3. Re:Energy by sexconker · · Score: 3, Informative

      For those who don't believe you, see eggs.

    4. Re:Energy by PitaBred · · Score: 2

      Yes. It works great.

      http://www.instructables.com/i...

      --
      My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
    5. Re:Energy by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Easy, just put a Tardis inside of it

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    6. Re:Energy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This. This SO MUCH.

      The thing that people are forgetting is there is a human in there.
      Even a simple punch to the head can take it out of you for a few seconds.

      We are speaking a suit that can hit several Gs in a second. NOOOOPE.
      That thing would kill even some fairly trained pilots if they screwed up once.
      We'd literally need inertial dampeners from SciFi science in order to make things like that possible.

      We don't even need to get on to things like explosions hitting the suit.
      I mean, sure, they did find out recently that a crustacean has the hardest natural armor ever evolved and is even tougher than materials we have produced that are in-use. It basically involves plates of material rotated around in a spiral stacked on top of each other and allows these things to survive a plasma-induced explosion that they create with their claws in water, one of the very few creatures to be able to produce plasma naturally. (probably even the only one actually, I haven't looked that up)
      We could put stuff like that in suits like that, which would aid a lot, but it still won't stop the explosion firing the suit across the room.
      We'd need some sort of ungodly hybrid of that and aerogels, or some crazy form of metamaterials, to dampen explosions at such close contact.

      But we also have another problem, the force that your limbs are being pushed and pulled around at.
      The human body is AWFUL, to put it lightly, try moving your arm up and down quickly, hear all that cracking and clicking? Imagine that but stupidly faster.
      Yeah, your arms are going to snap. Hard. Your elbow is going to explode clean off. Your knees are going to become vertical frisbees and will penetrate the Earth with such force that Satan will actually become real, rise up and will destroy all of us.
      The human body itself is just not capable of moving at such great speeds, never mind being PUSHED at those speeds by something.
      We'd need to engineer some sort of replacement joints for humans to enable such a suit to be useful. Human joints are just so inferior to what can be done with robotics.

      Better yet, just cut the limbs off and replace them with robotic limbs and make a permanent armor suit. Sorted.
      Human 2.0.

    7. Re: Energy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lock the suit joints under those conditions. Limbs saved.

    8. Re: Energy by Bathroom+Humor · · Score: 1

      Maybe the bones and skin are saved, but the soft tissue is still mush.
      For example, in the first Iron Man movie, when the tank shell hits him out of the sky (lol yeah right), he would have been killed ON IMPACT with the shell most likely, but certainly killed when he smashed into the ground. Just because the suit stops his bones from shattering doesn't mean that his organs smashing against the inside of the suit won't still devastate him. One good punch to the head from the Hulk and his brain would squish almost flat. Dead Stark.

      Same reason for why (American) football players and bicyclists still get brain injuries so often. Protecting the skull bones and the scalp from impact is all well and good, but if you can't slow the deceleration enough, your brain is getting jostled around a lot. Boxers face a similar problem. Sure their knuckles and skulls are more intact after a match, but their brains, not so much.

    9. Re:Energy by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Your knees are going to become vertical frisbees and will penetrate the Earth with such force that Satan will actually become real, rise up and will destroy all of us.

      Now you're just being silly.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    10. Re:Energy by holmstar · · Score: 1

      Yes, you could still be turned to jelly in such a suit, but it would raise maximum g forces you could withstand before being turned to jelly.

    11. Re:Energy by Falos · · Score: 1

      Pumping the pilot's lobster full of a breathable fluid will help, enough to imitate comic books and cartoons and anime. Forces are applied very uniformly.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      This only works up to 15~20G, apparently, since PFCs are denser than you, and will crush your innards (lungs, probably) if you+fluid is swung/impacted hard enough.

      Fluids closer to water's density will work better, but at obscenely greater impacts (assuming the suit is a perfect material that doesn't simply shatter) I'm guessing bones will be the next significant differential. Your skull will move faster than your brain, and pressure/crush it.

  3. Fixed that for ya' by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    >> ...people who specialize in robotics, artificial intelligence, and other areas have an increasing opportunity to get involved...

    Lemme fix that for ya': ...defense contractors who can claim they can build out the necessary robotics, AI, and other areas have an increasing opportunity to get lucrative contracts...

  4. Confirmed: Slashdot is dead. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Article about real-life Iron Man suits (Yeah! Exoskeletons! W00t!)

    Initial Post: 2:43 PM EST
    First Comment: 2:50 PM EST

    SEVEN MINUTES and NOBODY had ANYTHING to say?

    Sure, sure. I guess everyone must have just gone to RTFA... riiight.

    Sigh.

  5. "he's just another engineer who's made good?" by Nova+Express · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, without his suit, Tony Stark is a "Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist."

    Do I have to explain the simplest things to you people?

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

    1. Re:"he's just another engineer who's made good?" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So a bit like Bruce Wayne, but a superhero, huh?

  6. Need the ARC reactor by gurps_npc · · Score: 2
    The comic is correct, the only thing stopping us from doing this already is portable power source capable of fueling it for any reasonable amount of time.

    Which we DO NOT HAVE.

    Without it, all they have is a man in a suit with a long power cord - a cord that can easily also transfer commands, which moves the pilot out of the suit and into a significantly safer nearby workstation. Put in a camera with an optional microphone and you reduces the weight the machine has to move around.

    Which means what we can do is create an industrial robot.

    Putting the man inside is incredibly stupid - until we have a viable power source. If we get that power source, the mech suit becomes an incredibly GOOD idea.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
    1. Re:Need the ARC reactor by pr0fessor · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Given the unpredictability in a military or search and rescue situation a power source would be problematic. In an industrial situation a tethered power source might be more practical and allow the operator better precision in a more timely manner than remotely controlled.

    2. Re:Need the ARC reactor by Number42 · · Score: 1

      Where are we supposed to find an Angel for the suit to devour in order to become cordless?

    3. Re:Need the ARC reactor by Falos · · Score: 1

      If I remember my eva the answer is Aliens. Pretty sure I felt disillusioned when I learned that.

  7. The Talos Principle by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    For several years, the U.S. Special Operations Command has been working on a Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or "TALOS,"

    "Talos"? Now the SOC is just trolling us.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:The Talos Principle by flink · · Score: 3, Informative

      For several years, the U.S. Special Operations Command has been working on a Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or "TALOS,"

      "Talos"? Now the SOC is just trolling us.

      Talos in Greek mythology was an animated bronze colossus who was charged with guarding Europa, so it seems appropriate in this context. You see it pop up a lot in fiction and when naming programs that deal with anthropomorphic robots, particularly military ones.

    2. Re:The Talos Principle by Minwee · · Score: 1

      I'm sure that the final design will come with a single nail-shaped button on the ankle, complete with a warning label saying "Do Not Remove".

    3. Re:The Talos Principle by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Talos in Greek mythology was an animated bronze colossus who was charged with guarding Europa, so it seems appropriate in this context.

      Yes, that was my point.

      You see it pop up a lot in fiction and when naming programs that deal with anthropomorphic robots, particularly military ones.

      You apparently don't know the whole story. This is where a classical education comes in handy: Talos was killed when Medea drove him crazy by giving him drugs and then pulling the plug out of his heel.

      Talos was a failure whose vanity made him want to become immortal.

      Thus, my statement that Special Operations Command is trolling us.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:The Talos Principle by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      I'm sure that the final design will come with a single nail-shaped button on the ankle, complete with a warning label saying "Do Not Remove".

      Thank the gods, somebody gets my reference.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  8. oblig: Starship Trooper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Military uses in ten years max. They won't have Heinlein's jumping capability ... yet ...

    1. Re:oblig: Starship Trooper by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      And when things go wrong... MEDIC!

  9. Why a suit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Drone better.

    1. Re:Why a suit? by gnupun · · Score: 1

      Suppose the enemy can jam signals controlling the drone. Your drone becomes a dead pigeon in that case.

    2. Re:Why a suit? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Broadcasting strongly enough to drown out military C&C signals is probably a great way to pinpoint your transmitter for immediate cluster bombing.

  10. How many revisions will there be? by Beryllium+Sphere(tm) · · Score: 1

    I've always heard you should stay away from Talos 4.

  11. other considerations. by nimbius · · Score: 1

    I for one am worried were approaching this technology from only one side. We need to find an alcoholic, intellectual playboy with a debilitating terminal illness caused by an exotic, unstable power source permanently embedded in his chest.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  12. Let's shoot for Call Of Duty tech first by Brian_E_1971 · · Score: 1

    If we could just get the exo suit from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare that would be a fantastic start...

    1. Re:Let's shoot for Call Of Duty tech first by blue9steel · · Score: 2

      I'd settle for something that would let you carry the current gear load with less fatigue. That alone would be giant improvement.

    2. Re:Let's shoot for Call Of Duty tech first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thats called a big dog.

    3. Re:Let's shoot for Call Of Duty tech first by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Nah, just tie on some of those mylar party balloon filled with helium.
      They'll make your pack much lighter, and they come in bright festive colors to boot!

    4. Re:Let's shoot for Call Of Duty tech first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I seem to recall an article a while back about the Nave working on an unpowered exoskeleton to help sailors handle bulky loads and hold things in place with less fatigue...

      Ahh.. here we go: FORTIS

    5. Re:Let's shoot for Call Of Duty tech first by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Nah, just tie on some of those mylar party balloon filled with helium. They'll make your pack much lighter, and they come in bright festive colors to boot!

      It's always good to hear from actual combat veterans rather than the usual slashdot armchair generals.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  13. Bear Encounter Suit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What--no mention of Project Grizzly?

  14. d00d do you even scientifiction?! by Thud457 · · Score: 1
    some damn fascist once said:

    There are a dozen different ways of delivering destruction in impersonal wholesale, via ships or missiles of one sort or another, catastrophes so widespread, so unselective that the war is over because that nation or planet has ceased to exist. What we do is entirely different. We make war as personal as a punch in the nose. We can be selective, applying precisely the required amount of pressure at the specified point at a designated time. We've never been told to go down and kill or capture all left-handed redheads in a particular area, but if they tell us to, we can. We will. We are the boys who will go to a particular place, at H-hour, occupy a designated terrain, stand on it, dig the enemy out of their holes, force them then and there to surrender or die.

    Why even bother posting on this story if you aren't acquainted with the concept of the 30-second talking bomb?

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  15. Obligatory by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1, Funny

    Meanwhile, several companies [...] are working on products that could [...] allow warehouse [...] workers to handle physical tasks with greater efficiency and safety.

    Get away from her, you BITCH!

  16. Yes, it's so young that it dates back to the 50s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

        GE was experimenting with powered exoskeletons in the 50s. It's likely that articles about it inspired Robert Heinlien's powered armor in Starship Troopers.