5 Bionic Exoskeleton Suits of the Future
1. Real life Halo suit
Modified Images via the following sources 1, 2, 3
I just couldn’t resist including this one. Although it isn’t technically bionic, it is the first ballistic proof exoskeleton. Yes, Troy Hurtubise, inventor of the bear proof suit and star of the documentary Project Grizzly, deliberately went out of his way again to create a Halo replica suit called the Trojan.
It has already withstood knives, bullets, light explosives and clubs. It weighs 40 pounds and is crafted out of high impact plastic, has ceramic bullet protection and ballistic foam. The exoskeleton has everything from places to put pepper spray, ingestible transponders, knife and gun holsters and a device to record your last words.
Troy’s dream is to have this suit deployed on battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. He claims that if any major military organisation takes him up on his offer, he can produce each suit for roughly $2000.
Watch a video of the suit and its inventor:
…and now for the suits that didn’t make it
Images Via David Szondy
General Electric and the U.S. military co-developed an exoskeleton, named Hardiman , that made lifting 250 pounds feel like lifting 10 pounds. It was way too heavy, weighing in at 1,500 pounds, and only one arm worked, making it completely and utterly redundant.
In the mid 80’s plans were drawn up for a full-body exoskeleton for the infantry, yet it remained firmly on the drawing board. Ten years later and a team of researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Maryland, even drew up plans to build a suit that resembled our favourite comic book hero, Iron man. However the plans never went forward… Sigh…
It wasn’t until after Y2K, that progress really picked up. With extra funds from DARPA and modern materials such as carbon fibre, US inventors have been doing wonders. Mind you, so have the Japanese.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
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Comments
14 Responses to “5 Bionic Exoskeleton Suits of the Future”
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Rob O.
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 11:25 am1Reply to this comment.It’s always really interesting to see how a pop culture reference can bring such sharp attention to these kinds of gems that have long since been hidden away in the dark recesses of research labs. Granted, work would surely have continued to progress on these sorts of projects without the release of “Iron Man,” but just look at how much new (or renewed) public interest there is in exoskeleteon development as a result of that movie.
I know that these researchers have languished in obscurity for years, working on stuff that we’re only now getting tantalizing glimpses of, but still, the timing makes it feel like a “wag the dog” kinda setup.
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Greg
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 6:49 pm2Reply to this comment.I agree with you and have thought that for years. The government along with the producers in hollywood have been doing this to the public to desensitize them.
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Rob
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 6:49 pm3Reply to this comment.Great roundup of the various exo skeletons around… the story has also been added at http://www.gearcult.com
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funkdigital
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 7:24 pm4Reply to this comment.The possibilities are intriguing.
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gatzke
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 7:37 pm5Reply to this comment.Hey, check it out.. He can walk! Got any footage of him doing 300Lb squats?
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william hessian
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 8:24 pm6Reply to this comment.excellent list of exo suits. for some reason i have zero confidence in the grizzly guy’s suit, although it looks amazing. The 4th one REX looks pretty impressive, I hope to see these things advance even more than this quickly. It seems that any progress is few and far between. Which is too bad.
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d00d
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 8:44 pm7 -
Hilary Albutt
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 10:10 pm8Reply to this comment.Hmmmm its not a bad idea, but if the best two or three were to get together and have a suit that could lift itself, be bullet resistant and fire pink splodgy paint balls, now that I would pay to see!
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mike
Posted: May 6th, 2008 at 11:45 pm9Reply to this comment.so i dont get it… this will allow fat people to move?
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aslam
Posted: May 7th, 2008 at 3:00 am10Reply to this comment.Just what we need another fat-ass american who cant get around using his two legs.
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James
Posted: May 7th, 2008 at 10:56 pm11Reply to this comment.So, I guess they’ve got past the problems where the earlier bionic suits snapped their operators bones then?
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Hubbs
Posted: May 8th, 2008 at 9:15 pm12Reply to this comment.I for one welcome SkyNet as my new lord and master
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dennis
Posted: May 11th, 2008 at 6:01 pm13Reply to this comment.all mechanical devices break down, have problems etc… you have to keep them up and if one breaks down on the battlefield you have to take it off and you cant carry the darn heavy thing to keep the enemy from getting it and reverse engineering it so what do you do? carry around enough c4 to destroy it before you leave…its utterly crazy to think something like this is practical… what do you do?….every army will have them eventually and you have to invent something else and so on just like everything else in war there will be no end to it and cost the taxpayers even more money.
its just stupid. -
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