Gomeler.com

Demonstration of Futuristic Exoskeleton

11.29.07 - 03:42pm

I don’t know if many of you have read the Heinlein book Starship troopers but I bet a few of you have seen the movies. Sadly the movies portray the humans very differently from the book, in the book the humans fight in powered exoskeletons that you could think of as tiny versions of the mechanized suits in the popular anime series Gundam. Sarcos, an American robotics company, has created a suit that reminds me greatly of these mechanized suits and the demonstration video below shows how advanced their design has become. Honestly I could see within 10 to 20 years an army outfitted with a small group of these exoskeletons that would be used in supporting roles amongst the troops on the ground. Slim down the current design, create a power system that’ll run for multiple days and easily recharge(fuel cell?) and give it a nice metal/fiber composite covering to protect from rifle and small arms fire and you’ve got yourself a super-soldier of sorts. Since the suit would easily double the mass of the soldier it would make it possible for typical crew-operated weapons to become man-portable, enabling the soldier in the field to become a singular force that could easily overpower a traditional group of soldiers. Now you just need to make it more compact so that the user doesn’t become the target of RPGs, could be a slight issue I imagine as something like this would be a prime target to take out. Besides the military applications of such technology, this could be immensely useful in a multitude of fields ranging from agriculture, construction, manufacturing, exploration, and inclusion in off-planet spacesuits. Would be great if we do end up on the moon for a single astronaut to be able to haul around hundreds upon hundreds of pounds of materials with no assistance besides his suit. Great stuff and I can’t wait to see the finished product.

Category: News