First Military Exoskeleton Reaches Prototype

JonathanGCohen writes "The U.S. Military has created the first ever prototype for an exoskeleton to be worn by soldiers capable of making its 100 pound weight and a 70 pound supply package feel like five pounds." From the article: "Bleex 1 consists of a pair of hydraulically powered leg braces, more than 40 electronic sensors, a control computer, and an internal-combustion engine providing power from an attached backpack. The plastic and carbon-fiber braces are affixed rigidly to the soldier through a customized pair of standard Army boots, with more compliant and giving connections at the chest and waist. These looser connections prevent blisters and abrasions."

Falling down

[ewg]

If the wearer/opeartor falls down, can they stand up again unassisted?

I get a picture of beached whales or insects on their backs.

Not trolling, I really want to know!

The original article

[6350']

The story linked to above is a summary of this article:

Giving soldiers a high-tech leg up
http://machinedesign.com/asp/viewSelectedArticle.a sp?strArticleId=59627&strSite=MDSite&catId=2 [machinedesign.com]

Re:15 minutes?

[dc29A]

My question is why this exoskeleton? Why not some vehicle that can resist a blast from a roadside bomb? The US army is ridiculously powerful, no nation stands a chance in direct confrontation. So the only option is what the insurgents in Iraq are doing: guerilla warfare. How will this slow exoskeleton help that? The soldier who could duck for cover when attacked now won't be able as fast. This exoskeleton sucks for defending and going after people in cities, close alleys.

Book recommendation and a discussion question

[lilmouse]

I really recommend reading Forever Peace [wikipedia.org] by Joe Haldeman. It explores some of the issues (many of them moral) that come about when one nation can make war on another nation with no risk to its own men (through the use of robotic suits that have eventually had the humans taken all the way out). We're definitely headed that way...

It's a fabulous book - from the same guy who wrote Forever War, but it's not a series or anything.

Anyway, here's a question to toss out:

If one man can cause pain to another man with no risk to himself, then it's basically torture.

If a group of men can do it to a different group of men, what is it?

--LWM

Re:old news

[Michalson]

Of course it's old. If you advance the article id by 1, the next story is about redefining the kilograms (which is months old). The only story here is some guy using easily exploitable Slashdot "editors" to get a link to his blog posted on the front page in order to get lots of hits from which he gets money.

This really could help...

[squidguy]

Meanwhile, the US military recently launched a study into why so many soldiers and Marines were suffering back injuries (both during and post-deployment). Extreme equipment weights are cited as primary factors. So, technologies like this could really help.

is this worth it?

[evoltap]

After watching those videos at the UC Berkeley site I wonder how practical this thing is. -Very loud gas engine (dangerous too with the jet fuel) -Seems very awkward and unatural for the person wearing it. Why not just work on robots that will carry heavy things? The fact that the apparatus weighs so much in comparison to what it allows you to carry also seems ridicules.

Re:15 minutes?

[Charcharodon]

Exoskeletons currently only have one reasonable use based on the level of developement.

Guard

Guards are high profile targets that tend to stay in one locationt. Make this thing a hybrid and give them a power cable that can disconnect easily and you give them the ability to carry a ridiculous amount of armor. Current body armor weighs in under 30 lbs. Now imagine being able to be able to wear 200lbs. Along with that instead of carrying a light carbine the standard weapon could be a much heavier rifle or squad gun.

Currently the only method of having a "big dog on a chain" at a defensive position is to have a mounted gun position or a light armored vehicle mounted gun. Neither of which are manuverable nor unable to deal with close quarters opponents at odd angles of fire and both make nice big fat targets for RPG's.

This armored exoskeleton would have most of the advantages and fewer of the disadvantages and provide the intimidation and defensive capabilities the Army is looking for. It'll be some time were you'll see long range patrols using this equipment until some large advancements can be made to the max weight and the density of the power source.

Too many questions, not enough answers

[Robbyboy]

I saw this and being in the military, I had some questions. First about the article:

philoneist is very sketchy about this article and points to machinedesign and DARPA. I goto machine design and the entire article is undated giving no clue as to how old this thing may actually be. Now I start digging, most articles outside of the ones that are referenced in /. are in the 2003-2004 timeframe. I had to really dig to find ANYTHING about bleex in DARPA. This does not seem to be breaking news based on what I was actually able to find.

Now some valid points about this program were raised. My big question is what happens if said soldier/sailor/airman/marine etc is carring near max load and this thing suffers a catastrophic failure... Some special forces can handle 100 pounds of gear, but 200 pounds, catastrophic failure... In a word, Yikes!

I think DARPA will be better off looking into the cooling systems and making things smaller rather than helping us carry bigger and more...

Of course, thats just my opinion, I could be wrong...

Robert A. Wukich, Sr FF/EMT-B Sgt/USMC

My opinions do not reflect that of the USMC, Armed Forces, DoD, or anyone other than myself!

slow rate of change in the military

[spacerodent]

Being in the military things like this make me laugh. Seriously it takes YEARS to even institute a simple change of uniform for everyone. Imagine how long it's going to take to get these ready for issue AND create new tactics for them. I would put a lose estimate around 2020 at the earlyest even if they get proper funding, which is unlikey.

Re:If they only up-armored it

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Nah, Robert Heinlein had powered battle suits of some kind in "Starship Trooopers". They allowed, among other things, incredible leaping (though I forget the terminology he used.)

And I'd be surprised if he were the first to do so.

BTW, a MechWarrior Battletech Battlemech, or WTH ever it is called, also goes by another name: sitting duck. In physics as is currently known, penetrating missle-bombs are way, way ahead of armor. In fact, the only viable defense against them are anti-missle missles.

Re:Prototype includes legislator-ready PR photo

[Scrameustache]

Got to love how any military product has to have a PR photo ready first, results later. Research in any other field doesn't need consumer-electronics-level designers quite so early in the project. Something about that gives me the willies.

I was watching a documentary on the race to build the next generation fighter jet, and time and time again, the main argument in favor of the X22 was that the other design looked weird.

Yeah, plan your multi-billion dollar expenses on the sexiness of the machine boys, not on the functionality. I too get "the willies" thinking that people this infantile are sitting with their finger on the metaphorical nuclear button.

Re:Are hydraulic exoskeletons the only way?

[susano_otter]

The only problem "the nature" has solved has been the problem of how to reverse a motion produced by one muscle. The solution is to pair a second muscle with the first, so that any muscular force exerted to close a joint can be reversed by a muscular force to open the joint, and vice versa.

Nature, having a much firmer grasp of thermodynamics than you do, has not bothered trying to solve the problem of a magical system that produces a power output greater than its power input.

Not mutually exclusive

[ScentCone]

My question is why this exoskeleton? Why not some vehicle that can resist a blast from a roadside bomb?

If the military's research into new technologies for various applications had to stop because something else was also (or more) pressing, nothing would ever get done. Things like the internet we're using right now, GPS, and countless other defense initiatives overlapped in R&D and always will. Personally, I think exo-skeletons like this are most likely to be used, along with more armor, when a medic or other rescue guy needs to hop out of an armored vehicle and assist in moving a wounded 250-pound Marine into the shelter of the vehicle. Tasks like that are exactly hand-in-hand with other work done on bomb/mine-resistent personnel carriers and transport vehicles. A rescue squad is going to be a lot more likely to step out into sniper fire if they can handle their own substantial armor and carry a large, gear-laden soldier 50 yards into the clear. Also, this is how you get geeks to enlist.

Re:old news

[Haydn Fenton]

Nah, more likely it was regurgitated from digg.com (since I clearly remember seeing this very summary a while ago, maybe a week or two). Probably so that they could get their name on Slashdot's front page.

Here comes the part of the comment which will probably get me modded troll...

I'm fucking sick of it. Every bloody day I see stories from Digg on Slashdot. This would and should obviously be expected if the news is actually news, but when stories from years ago suddenly appear on Digg then a few days later are posted (in pretty much the exact same wording) on Slashdot, it really pisses me off.
Sure, the comments on Slashdot are much, much better and interesting than Digg's AOL-kiddy comments, but when I come here for news and find the frontpage of last weeks Digg, it's as frustrating as spending 20 hair-ripping minutes stuck on one of the levels from the game "N". Well, not quite that bad, but it pisses me off nonetheless. Dupes I can handle, trolls I can handle, the same repeating stereotypical Slashdot jokes I can take (and even find funny if used in the right story\context), but finding old reposts of old news blatently copy & pasted from Digg I cannot take.

Re:Tin soliders...

[davidsyes]

Payback can be a BITCH!

Remember the US so fiendishly dropping metallic strips over powerplants in a few countries to disrupt their electrics?

Well, were IIII on the defensive and saw a "mechanized" force of wretched (pick your favorite hated nation) of infiltrators, I'd welcome them with electric eels. Air-droppped. See how fast a trooper can shed THAT metallic skin.

They better rethink this if the units are touted for allowing high-weight transport at decent speeds but are conductive. WON'T be good for moral if some super-flash or flame-throwing goo gets all over them. Even worse if they can't check the terrain for my acid bath pits. Fall into one and you're not coming out in solid form.

Even better, set up Claymore-Taser-like barriers. Who needs mines when ClayZers (Hey, I coined first usaged) will fry the trooper AND his friggin' fragged exo-scream-atorium?!

Yeh, where there's a WAY, there's a WILL, said a Marine I used to answer to.

IMHO as a member of the infantry

[ithrax]

Obviously Bleex has a long way to go. It's a very cool start.

1)6 feet/sec is only about 4 mph. Not too fast.
2)I can ruck with over 100 lbs on my back for a few hours. Days without even lugging JP-4 around.
3)Do I need to carry 200lbs and sound like a chainsaw? This just makes me more of a target. [berkeley.edu]
4)The user can duck and squat, but if under enemy fire could he engage and overtake? Or fall prone, return fire, and *get back up*?

I am all for the advancement of technology to aid our military. DARPA has a lot of goodies on their shelf that many of us would like to be completed.
Years from now Bleex will be looked at as the grandfather of the giant robot mecha tanks we send our soldier to war. Full Metal Panic [animenfo.com] anyone?

Where you are?

[core plexus]

During my time in the Army, I've been in Desert, Jungle, Temperate, and Arctic environments. The toughest, by far, is the Arctic.

Regular underwear, long underwear, insulated shirt/pants, maybe another layer on top of that, overwhites, Bunny Boots, glove liners, Arctic Mittens, balaclava, goggles, etc. etc. Then there is skis/snowshoes/poles, Arctic canteens, and lots of gear. Then add to that a main and reserve chute if you're Airborne (like me), knife, weapons, ammo, cleaning kit, protective mask, maybe a radio and batteries, binos, rope, crampons, etc. etc.

I remember an old poster at one army post that had a pic of a guy carrying a fridge on his back, with the caption "Don't be an ass, leave it behind." I wish.

I'd like to see how this performs while climbing uphill over deadfalls in deep snow at -40 below zero.

30 percent of the carbon monoxide in northeastern U.S. comes from Alaska [suvalleynews.com]

Re:Where you are?

[Dun Malg]

Then add to that a main and reserve chute if you're Airborne (like me), knife, weapons, ammo, cleaning kit, protective mask, maybe a radio and batteries, binos, rope, crampons, etc. etc. I remember an old poster at one army post that had a pic of a guy carrying a fridge on his back, with the caption "Don't be an ass, leave it behind." I wish.

I know your pain, my brother. When I was in the 7th Light ID and later the 101st AB, the dirtiest word I heard was "man-portable"...

SGT: "Hey private, you're carrying the minifix [fas.org]! heh heh heh"
me: "mumble..."