One step closer to real Terminators

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Looks like we're on our way to Arnold-style Terminators...

Robotic Legs Could Produce Super Troops

By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer

BERKELEY, Calif. - Move over Bionic Man and make room for BLEEX — the Berkeley Lower Extremities Exoskeleton, with strap-on robotic legs designed to turn an ordinary human into a super strider.

Ultimately intended to help people like soldiers or firefighters carry heavy loads for long distances, these boots are made for marching.

"The design of this exoskeleton really benefits from human intellect and the strength of the machine," says Homayoon Kazerooni, who directs the Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory at the University of California-Berkeley.

The exoskeleton consists of a pair of mechanical metal leg braces that include a power unit and a backpack-like frame. The braces are attached to a modified pair of Army boots and are also connected, although less rigidly, to the user's legs.

More than 40 sensors and hydraulic mechanisms function like a human nervous system, constantly calculating how to distribute the weight being borne and create a minimal load for the wearer.

"There is no joystick, no keyboard, no push button to drive the device," says Kazerooni, a professor of mechanical engineering. "The pilot becomes an integral part of the exoskeleton."

In lab experiments, says Kazerooni, testers have walked around in the 100-pound exoskeleton plus a 70-pound backpack and felt as if they were carrying just five pounds.

Eventually, the device could help rescuers haul heavy equipment up high-rise buildings or turn tired troops into striding super soldiers.

What it won't do is turn you into a Borg, the gadget-happy gladiators of "Star Trek" fame.

"The exoskeleton is not going to magically transform people into killing machines," says Kazerooni, known to his students as Professor Kaz. "They're really good, it turns out, at enabling firefighters, soldiers, post-disaster rescue crews to carry heavy loads over great distances for hours."

So, no cyborg cops. But at least you get Terminator togs.

Video of the BLEEX in action, which can be viewed at http://www.me.berkeley.edu/hel/bleex.htm, shows a steel-spiked symbiosis of man and machine, marching about to the techno-industrial drone of grinding motors. The next step for the BLEEX team is making the power source quieter and stronger and miniaturizing components.


BLEEX is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon (news - web sites) research and development arm, and was among the projects being showcased at a DARPA tech symposium this week in Anaheim.


The project is one of scores in the field of robotics, which ranges from industrial machines that assemble cars to orthotics, surgical devices that activate or supplement weakened limbs or functions.


Excitement about robotics was fanned by this week's DARPA-sponsored Mojave Desert race for fully autonomous vehicles, and the field is making strides worldwide.


In Japan, a leader in robot research, Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites). has developed a child-shaped walking robot, known as Qrio, and Honda Motor Co. (news - web sites) has also developed a walking, talking humanoid robot. This spring, some Japanese companies plan to start marketing a "robot suit," a motorized, battery-operated device intended to help old and infirm people move around.


The current favorite in the DARPA race came out of Carnegie Mellon University, where professor Matthew Mason is working on intelligent robots including the Mobipulator, which uses its wheels to move things as well as for locomotion.


"There's just too much to do," says Mason. "Every time that there is an advance in computing, there are just so many more things that it becomes possible to do. Robotics is really about interfacing computers to the physical world so that their sensors give them a better concept of what's going on around them — they can make interesting things happen instead of just sitting there in their little beige boxes."

Kazerooni isn't offering test drives of the exoskeleton. But if he were, Mason would be interested.

"It looks really exciting," says Mason. "I'd like to try it on myself."

Re: One step closer to real Terminators

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Register wrote:Lockheed offers ready-to-go supersoldier exoskeleton
Jetfuel powerpack, armour... shoulder turret?

US weaponry globocorp Lockheed is pleased to announce the unveiling of its newly-acquired powered exoskeleton intended to confer superhuman strength and endurance upon US soldiers.

Needless to say, corporate promo vid of the Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC™) is available:
[video][/video]

The exoskeleton is based on a design from Berkeley Bionics of California, but Lockheed say they have brought significant pimpage to the basic HULC. The enhanced version is now on show at the Association of the United States' Army Winter Symposium in Florida.

"With our enhancements to the HULC system, Soldiers will be able to carry loads up to 200 pounds with minimal effort," according to Lockheed's Rich Russell.

From the vid, the HULC certainly seems a step forward on Raytheon's rival XOS mechwarrior suit, which at last report still trails an inconvenient power cable to the nearest wall socket.

Not so the HULC; four pounds of lithium polymer batteries will run the exoskeleton for an hour walking at 3mph, according to Lockheed. Speed marching at up to 7mph reduces this somewhat; a battery-draining "burst" at 10mph is the maximum speed.

The user can hump 200lb with relative ease while marching in a HULC, however, well in excess of even the heaviest combat loads normally carried by modern infantry. There'd be scope to carry a few spare batteries. Even if the machine runs out of juice, Lockheed claims that its reinforcement and shock absorption still helps with load carrying rather than hindering.

There are various optional extras, too. The HULC can be fitted with armour plating, heating or cooling systems, sensors and "other custom attachments". We particularly liked that last one: our personal request would be a powered gun or missile mount of some kind above the shoulder, linked to a helmet or monocle laser sight.

One does note that remote-controlled gun mounts weighing as little as 55lb are available, able to handle various kinds of normally tripod- or bipod-mounted heavy weapons.

You'd need more power, but that's on offer. According to the Lockheed spec sheet (pdf) there's an extended-endurance HULC fitted with a "silent" generator running on JP8 jet fuel. A tankful will run this suit for three days, marching eight hours per day - though presumably at the cost of some payload.

Doubtless other power options could be developed: Lockheed says the HULC needs 250 watts on average.

It's important to note that the HULC is basically a legs and body system only: there's no enhancement to the user's arms, though an over-shoulder frame can be fitted allowing a wearer to hoist heavy objects such as artilery shells with the aid of a lifting strop.

The HULC may not be quite ready for prime time yet. But the military exoskeleton as a concept does seem to be getting to the stage of usefulness, at least in niche situations for specific jobs.

The BigDog petrol packmule, an alternative strategy for helping footsoldiers carry their increasingly heavy loads, may now have a serious rival.

Re: One step closer to real Terminators

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And the award for most useless, none informative piece of video ever goes to.............

What I learned from watching the vid:

1) You can walk with the thing on. And semi-sprint. On solid ground, nonetheless.
2) You can also take some nice hikes through your local parks.
3) You can bend your knees.
4) You can carry bombs around.
5) It looks like a fuckin' joke.

Money well spent.