
Lockheed Knee-Stress Relief Device - smacktoward
http://breakingdefense.com/2017/05/k-srd-exoskeleton-gives-overburdened-troops-a-leg-up-literally/
======
smacktoward
I see the original headline on this piece ("Lockheed Exoskeleton Gives Troops
A Leg Up, Literally") has been neutered, one more casualty in HN's ongoing War
On Good Headlines. Sigh.

The original one actually sounded like something that would be interesting to
read, unlike the neutered version ("Lockheed Knee-Stress Relief Device", as of
this writing), which sounds like a page out of an ergonomic supply catalog.

I know how sensitive HN is to clickbait, but it does a disservice to
interesting articles to hide them behind labels that sound deeply, profoundly
uninteresting.

~~~
matt4077
Indeed–it's a strange outcrop of HN's no-fluff-worldview, in that it seems to
consider all hints of creativity as detrimental to its mission.

In this case, it has surely come full circle. In an effort to avoid the
original title's pun, it has replaced it with something that gives a
completely wrong impression regarding the content. Indeed, as the article
mentions, it "makes it sounds like a piece of molded plastic your insurance
would refuse to cover".

Let's remember that "clickbait" once meant psycho-tricks like "You won't
believe these 10 reasons why...". Newspapers have, since time immortal, used
all sorts of literary devices in headlines. Indeed there are some publications
where headlines are the only outlet for a bit of lightness. The economist, for
example, is well-known for bone-dry articles in contrast to evocative
headlines (and, sometimes, outright silly captions).

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AndrewOMartin
I have a friend who would basically get his life back if he could use
something like this to allow him to walk normally.

I'm all for superhuman enhancements, and I know that defence leads research in
many areas, but I can't help feeling a bit disappointed that my friend will
likely never have access to anything like this.

~~~
maxerickson
Do you think affordability will be a blocker?

I'd expect such assistive devices to hit the medical market pretty much
instantly once they are practical in terms of things like weight, cost and run
time.

~~~
Someone
One problem is that you have to make sure that this device tries to rotate
your knee around the same axis as your knee does, probably more so when used
on people who already have weaker knees.

Because of that, I expect that fitting this to a body is a lengthy and, hence,
fairly costly affair.

~~~
thesuitonym
Telescopic arms and IR sensors feeding to the AI could potentially center the
joins within a few steps without any human intervention.

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agentgt
I'm curious what takes up the majority of the weight in terms of what a
typical soldier carries?

I'm guessing after some quick math that its not the water like I originally
suspected but perhaps the armor and ammo but maybe not?

~~~
gnopgnip
A USMC radio operator on a ground patrol with a plan to be out for less than a
day and cover 20km will have radio batteries, a radio, flak jacket, 4 extra
magazine, m4, smoke grenades, helmet, sunglasses, weapon cleaning kit, extra
socks, 2 days of mre, probably 2l of extra water, poncho liner, rain jacket,
gloves, extra socks. Others will have heavier weapons but less radio gear and
two people will have ied jammers. Night vision goggles and a peq 16 plus extra
batteries and grenades will depend on what they are doing. 60lbs or more is
normal for a ground patrol.

~~~
tcoff91
It's really impressive to me that all that gear only weighs 60 lbs. That is so
much stuff.

~~~
prodmerc
It's the other way around - all that gear is not as much as you'd like and
30kg is a lot of weight to carry on you most of the time :)

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mrfusion
How hard is it for a hoobiest to build something like this?

What's the hard part? Aligning to your leg? Powerful enough motors? Software?

~~~
rtkwe
It depends on how broadly you are willing to count as having made one. Super
crude examples have already been made at home and can lift things. Power
consumption and size are big issues but the largest one is that without really
good software the person wearing it will have to fight against the exo-'suit'
so much that normal movement will take more energy. One of the big
improvements touted in the article is just that, the prosthetic got better
software so that it predicted how the user wanted to move better.

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gadders
>> So if you can’t lighten the soldier’s load, and you can’t take it off him,
can you make him stronger? Nowadays, the answer is yes: We have the
technology.

Yeah, it's called a squat rack.

~~~
cubano
...and PEDs of course.

It's interesting to wonder if government special ops teams are encouraged or
even required to follow doctor-prescribed PED cycles these days.

~~~
rjeli
Yep, testosterone dramatically increases strength, almost eliminates recovery
time, reduces the need for sleep and food to maintain muscle mass... the
downside, you die at 50

~~~
cubano
I seriously doubt that assertion as testosterone is liberally prescribed to
people my age (50s) to help with a wide variety of issues.

~~~
rjeli
That's because natural test levels drop in old age, so TRT restores them to
the former, youthful levels, between 200 and 1000 ng/dl. For noticeable
benefits, enhanced athletes are generally blasting at 3000-4000 ng/dl, and
that's just as a _base_ for a complex and crazy strong cocktail of androgenic
anabolic compounds.

My point is that PEDs really do take you to a different world physically, and
there is zero - zilch competition between natural and enhanced athletes. When
you are at that level, it's difficult to come off, go back to fatigue and
weakness and small size, so you end up blasting for a decade and at that point
your heart is the size of your head.

