Superhuman Exoskeleton Headed to Battlefield
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 01:00 CDT
At 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, Rex Jameson bikes and swims regularly, but struggles to bench-press 200 pounds. However, the software engineer is able to multiply his endurance and strength as much as 20 times once inside an aluminum “exoskeleton” equipped with sophisticated electronics. The suit, able to sense and amplify every movement the user makes, once allowed Jameson to lift 500 pounds with the device’s claw-like metal hands.
"Everyone gets bored much more quickly than I get tired," Jameson told the Associated Press.
Jameson works for Salt Lake City-based Sarcos Inc., a robotics firm currently under a two-year, $10 million contract with the U.S. Army to develop the technology and assess the 150-pound suit's viability for soldiers of the future. Sarcos had also developed robotic dinosaurs for Universal Studios' "Jurassic Park" theme park ride.
The Army plans initial field tests for the suit next year, and hopes soldiers might one day wear it in combat. But for now, the focus is on applications such as repairing heavy equipment and loading cargo.
However, before the technology can become practical, developers must surmount cost barriers and prolong the battery life of the suit. During his demonstration, Jameson had to be tethered to power cords since the existing battery lasts only 30 minutes.
But the technology has already shown that robotics can amplify human muscle power for real-life applications, something that until now was only seen in comic books and action hero movies such as “Iron Man”, in which a weapons designer builds a high-tech suit to battle villains.
"Everybody likes the idea of being a superhero, and this is all about expanding the capabilities of a human," Stephen Jacobsen, the suit’s chief designer, told the Associated Press.
The Army’s exoskeleton research has been ongoing since 1995, but without practical results. But Sarcos’ technology was impressive enough that Mass.-based defense contractor Raytheon Co. bought the firm’s robotics business last November.
The Army's exoskeleton research dates to 1995, but has yet to yield practical suits. But Sarcos' technology impressed Raytheon Co. (RTN) enough that the Waltham, Mass.-based defense contractor acquired Sarcos' robotics business last November.
Jack Obusek, a former colonel now with the Army's Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center near Boston, foresees soldiers using the robot-suits for hauling hundreds of pounds of gear over rough terrain, unloading heavy ammunition boxes from helicopters or even relying on the suit's strength-enhancing capabilities to fix tanks that break down in difficult locations.
Sarcos' Jacobsen predicts the technology might someday be used by factory workers to more easily perform manual labor, and by firefighters to more rapidly carry heavy equipment up the stairwells of burning buildings. Disabled people might also be helped by the technology, he added.
"We see the value being realized when these suits can be built in great numbers for both military and commercial uses, and they start coming down in cost to within the range of the price of a small car," he said, declining to predict how much the suit might cost once in mass production.
But cost is only one of the barriers. Developers eventually hope to extend the life of the suit’s backpack battery and improve its design to use less energy. Until then, the suit can draw power from a generator, a helicopter or a tank. Additionally, gas engines, although loud, exist that are small enough to fit into the suit’s backpack.
"The power issue is probably the No. 1 challenge standing in the way of getting this thing in the field," Obusek told the AP.
He said Sarcos seems to have addressed the issue of pairing ultra-fast microprocessors with sensors that detect joint movements and transmit data about them to the suit's computer. The computer then sends instructions to hydraulic valves, similar to the way the brain sends signals to tendons to make muscles move. The valves actually imitate tendons by powering the suit's mechanical limbs, almost instantly repeating and amplifying the wearer's movements.
"With all the previous attempts at this technology, there has been a slight lag time between the intent of the human, and the actual movement of the machine," Obusek said.
Although the cumbersome suit slowed Jameson down a bit during the demonstration, he could move almost normally. He was able to repeatedly strike a punching bag, bounce a soccer ball thrown at him off his helmet and climb stairs in the suit's clunky aluminum boots, which made him look somewhat like Frankenstein.
"It feels less agile than it is," Jameson said. "Because of the way the control laws work, it's ever so slightly slower than I am. And because we are so in tune with our bodies' responses, this tiny delay initially made me tense."
"I can regain my balance naturally after stumbling - something I discovered completely by accident."
Jameson said learning to use the suit was simple.
"It takes no special training, beyond learning to relax and trust the robot," he said.
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On the Net:
A video demonstration of Sarcos robotic suit can be viewed at http://www.raytheon.com/newsroom/technology/rtn08_exoskeleton/
Source: redOrbit staff and wire reports
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