
Robotic suit could usher in super soldier era - utnick
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90M7EDO7&show_article=1
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blogimus
But it is not going to happen anytime soon without a major breakthrough in
battery technology. I don't know much about battery technology except that I
keep hearing the challenges are tremendous. I dream of the little walnut sized
atomic power plants Asimov described in the Foundation books.

From the article:

"Before the technology can become practical, the developers must overcome cost
barriers and extend the suit's battery life. Jameson was tethered to power
cords during his demonstration because the current battery lasts just 30
minutes."

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donw
The same sort of breakthrough is needed for not-powered-by-gasoline cars, so
it's not like it's not a being-worked-on problem. :) This seems like a good
application for fuel cells, actually, given that the energy density is five or
ten times that of the best chemical batteries.

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donw
Well, they don't specify what kind of 'press' (bench, leg, drill, coffee?),
but I'll assume they mean 'bench', and for an 'athletic' 5'11" guy at 180lbs,
not being able to bench 200 is... surprising. Anybody can, with a bit of
training, bench 10% above their body weight.

I know that this isn't the point of the article -- I'm just being nitpicky. I
definitely think that the tech is interesting, but I think that it will end up
finding many more uses in the civilian world than it will in the military. A
reliable, self-powered exoskeleton would make for a lot of changes in the
building trades, in the way warehouses are managed, in the way factories
operate...

We live in interesting times. :)

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hugh
It says he's "lucky if he can press 200 pounds" unassisted, which means he
presses 200 lbs on a good day. Which, as you say, is pretty normal. I'm not
sure what you're surprised about, unless you're misinterpreting the phrase
"lucky if".

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stealthstartup
I was going to go into this field, until I saw this really good documentary as
a teenager, which made me realize how dangerous this technology is.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088247/>

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nazgulnarsil
battery limitations are the show stoppers on every cool piece of technology
I've seen for the last few years. :(

it's one of the fundamental engineering challenges of humanity. how do we
store energy more efficiently?

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jpeterson
Now we can "liberate" even more countries!

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ken
Robotic suits not make soldiers super.

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donw
Well, every time we've tried radiation, all we've done is given soldiers the
super powers of 'getting cancer' and 'dying', so I'm kind of happy that
they're going for more the 'Batman' and 'Iron Man' approach. :)

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markbao
Master Chief?

