
Iron Man-Like Exoskeleton Nears Production - olalonde
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27055/?p1=A3
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mrspeaker
5 years, 10 years... It's okay for me: whenever I see old people hobbling
along as a I race past them to catch my train, I pray that exoskeletons hit
the mass market before my legs stop working.

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robin_reala
Although it’s hardly useful in an industrial setting, I rather like this
unpowered exoskeleton built as a student project:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdPpWy_O09k>

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program
CYberdyne INC (Japan) has a very advanced Hybrid Assistive Limb project as
well. It's not developed for military purposes but for helping the disabled
and elderly in their daily tasks. They will begin production in 2012.

<http://www.cyberdyne.jp/english/robotsuithal/index.html>

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kosei
Seriously? Cyberdyne?

Are they building a digital defense network called Skynet?

~~~
yohui
And their Hybrid Assistive Limb is called "HAL".

I would be surprised if they did _not_ have some system named "Skynet".

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stcredzero
Sarcos corporation has had high quality haptic feedback mechanisms for decades
now.

<http://www.sarcos.com/teleop_videos.html>

Take a look at the "Large Dextrous Arm" video. The operator has an arm in a
haptic-feedback harness, which means he is virtually feeling what it's like to
have a giant-sized arm that can pick up an anvil like a coffee cup.

Sarcos corporation actually knows how to build a full-body haptic feedback
harness. Build one of those into the center of gravity of a 50 foot tall
hydraulically actuated mechanical body, and add mechanisms ensuring that the
orientation of the harness homunculus is always the same as the orientation of
the giant mech homunculus. Since the orientation of both the giant and harness
forms are the same, the human pilot's inner ear can become the gyroscopic
mechanism for the whole mechanism.

In other words, you'd have a Japanese style "Giant Robot" with scaled-up
human-like coordination and agility. (There would be an expansion in time for
movements, but a human pilot should be able to compensate.)

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c_raig
Real talk, geek-style:

Not really Iron Man's suit - it's more like Ripley's mechanical suit from
Alien, used primarily to move heavy crates in a loading bay.

Get your references right, HN

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mcdoh
I wonder what kind of fail-safes are built into these suits, if it goes
haywire it could bend you into a pretzel.

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demallien
Ha, that immediately started me thinking - what if you remove the human, and
fill the space with 70kg of battery, and then hook the think up to a mirror
suit back at base worn by a real human receiving force feedback - instant
Robocop.

~~~
unwind
Except that RoboCop was an actual cyborg, i.e. human brain (and various other
organic parts) inside a largely artificial body.

I think what you're describing is more along the lines of a drone, as used in
the aerial sense (UAV:s).

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rokhayakebe
Seems like these guys are way behind Lockheed which has an unhooked version
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kat8I5UM_Vs&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kat8I5UM_Vs&feature=related).

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int3rnaut
Imagine how many keyboards you'd mash if you used this while hacking in your
old age haha. There are so many great applications for this, I just hope
humanity, like Tony Stark uses this for good.

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retube
I assume is has rocket boosters capable of sustained, high speed flight and
reaching orbit :)

Looks closer to the Alien loader exoskeletons - still very cool.

~~~
Luyt
Oh yes! <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSrcMaid0mg> (a fragment of the alien
vs. powerloader fight)

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oemera
It would be a shame if these would be only used for combat and war. Imagine
how cool it would be for hard jobs like builders or miners. But I guess in war
and combat is way more money than in those hard jobs.

~~~
Ygor
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-use_technology>

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powertower
How does the exoskeleton prevent you from falling over when you pick up or
hold a 500 lbs weight at arms length?

It seems like this would be a major factor when center of gravity shifts as it
does not compensate for it.

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stcredzero
The exoskeleton is supposed to follow your movements, so you'll shift your
center of gravity in the same way you normally pick up a 50 or 100 lb weight
without the exo. If the added mass of the exoskeleton isn't enough to let you
compensate through such repositioning, then you won't lift the 500 lbs.

This thing is designed to augment strength and reduce fatigue, not grant
omnipotent lifting.

(Smaller people like me tend to better understand the effect of advantageous
positioning to reduce fatigue and better leverage what you can move and lift.
Yes, one can actually use one's brain to do more physical labor.)

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jeroen
For rather large values of "nears":

 _It'll take five years to start deploying a version of the suit that must be
tethered to a power source ... And for a free-range version, expect to wait a
decade or more_

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paul9290
Interesting TED talk/demonstration of the technology created by a different
company.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLnOPA7oMxY>

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noeltock
I didn't expect it to be flexible in the demo's, are we going to see it on the
battlefield or construction sites first?

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Cushman
Construction sites. It needs external power.

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camtarn
I can imagine this thing being pretty impressive on a construction site - it
could presumably do quite a few things which require a mini excavator today,
like using extra-heavy jackhammers or clearing huge pieces of rubble. Having
watched a warehouse near my flat being ponderously disassembled by a trio of
excavators, I wonder whether using an exoskeleton would allow for greater
speed due to a much more direct mapping of tool movement to natural human
movements.

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Cushman
Definitely. Not just for demo, either— something trivial like sheetrocking a
ceiling can be a hassle for a team of guys, never mind about something harder
like framing. A team of guys in robosuits could knock it right out.

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leoc
> "Nearing production," in the tech world, is even looser of a phrase than in
> Hollywood

Ooh, burn.

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Palomides
yeah, but Iron Man didn't have a big tether he dragged around. Battery tech
seems like it is really the limiting factor in usefulness here.

~~~
stcredzero
The Neon Genesis Evangelion anime had "mecha" that needed an external power
umbilical.

[http://www.figures.com/forums/attachments/news/9508d12810229...](http://www.figures.com/forums/attachments/news/9508d1281022927-sdcc10-exclusive-
bandais-neon-genesis-evangelion-eva-01-test-type-night-combat-
ver-1evaplug.jpg)

In a real-life combat situation, that would be debilitating, but it would be
workable in a construction, rescue, or sporting context.

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brianleb
> By now, with films like _Iron Man_ , its sequel, and _Avatar_ , Hollywood
> has made us thoroughly familiar with the idea of the robotic exoskeleton.

I'm sorry, _what?_ If you don't know what you're talking about, just don't
talk about it. It's that simple. You lose credibility all around for every
mistake you make.

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grannyg00se
What's wrong with mentioning Iron Man and Avatar?

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btilly
Hollywood is not what made exoskeletons familiar. Things like the _Iron Man_
comic series accomplished that long before Hollywood thought about it. It has
also appeared in countless games, such as the _Halo_ series.

But if you want to give extra credit to Hollywood, you should look at earlier
popular movies that used exoskeletons. Such as the defenders of Zion in the
sequels to _The Matrix_ , or _Starship Troopers_.

