You've got to check this out:Skeletonics, a six-month-old Japanese student project, has resulted in an exoskeleton made of plastic and metal that's surprisingly dexterous and powered solely by the human embedded inside. As a bonus, the promo video looks something like a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog cutscene.
As the Skeletonics suit is unpowered, it doesn't grant any kind of crazy strength or Iron-Man-esque powers--the Skeletonics is mostly designed to extend the reach of a human's arms and legs, while keeping freedom of movement and dexterity. It looks like it succeeds at that, packing both working fingers that are delicate enough to hand candy to a child and spring-loaded legs that are capable of (hilariously) chasing a criminal through an underpass.
(Cut to about the four minute mark if you want to see the suit in action and don't want to watch four minutes of design and such).
Now, it's not quite the Mobile Infantry from "Starship Troopers", but it's getting there. It's not hard to see how this suit could easily be adapted to add power - some hydraulics here, a compressor there, before you know it you've got a bomb technician who doesn't have to worry about cutting the wrong wire. The applications are nearly limitless - imagine being able to precisely handle objects weighing ten times your body weight. A mechanized Superman, if you will.
Batman, eat your heart out!
That is all.
5 comments:
I believe the US military is already developing a powered version of that suit. Search on utube. Last I saw was the guy was able to lift something like 800 lbs. fairly easily without any exertion because it's all hydraulic. The only problem I saw was developing a power source for it.
I could see the unpowered version being useful, too. It seems like it wouldn't take much to throw a little light armour and some small heavy weapons on the existing design, and if the leverage and spring assist are done right I bet the soldier wouldn't notice much, if any, increase in his actual workload.
It probably also wouldn't take much to add low-power electric motors to give a small strength boost. It wouldn't be as much as you would get with hydraulics, but could be enough to reduce the soldier's workload even more without requiring a large power source (maybe a few dozen laptop batteries).
Fascinating! The vegitable that he keeps brandishing is a leek. Often associated with the virtual idol Miku Hatsune from the Vocaloid software. Fitting as you can actually write music and lyrics and have the software sing for you. Much like this device slaves human motion.
Love the concept, ever since I first picked up Heinlein.
This will have some serious potential when they get a concentrated power source sorted out.
Awesome
See the HULC. Not quite there yet but, frankly, if this is what they are revealing, odds are the really cool version is already in testing, no?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPB6uwc7aWs
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