5 Bionic Exoskeleton Suits of the Future
Tue, May 6, 2008
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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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Inspiration: Cyborgs, Robots, and Mecha - PSDTUTS Says:
July 10th, 2008 at 6:28 am[...] Visit Article [...]
May 6th, 2008 at 11:25 am
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.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
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.
May 6th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Great roundup of the various exo skeletons around… the story has also been added at http://www.gearcult.com
May 6th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
The possibilities are intriguing.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Hey, check it out.. He can walk! Got any footage of him doing 300Lb squats?
May 6th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
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.
http://www.zombierobotfrosting.blogspot.com
May 6th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hkCcoenLW4
May 6th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
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!
May 6th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
so i dont get it… this will allow fat people to move?
May 7th, 2008 at 3:00 am
Just what we need another fat-ass american who cant get around using his two legs.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
So, I guess they’ve got past the problems where the earlier bionic suits snapped their operators bones then?
May 8th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
I for one welcome SkyNet as my new lord and master
May 11th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
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.
September 18th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Wow. No wonder that 10 years later iron man would become a reality.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
One of the most stupidest suits i have ever seen for a verity of reasons:
1. When the legs bend the joints leave gaps although this could be cleaned up later.
2. The gloves are less effective and are only slightly protective.
3. The suit seems to wear him out even with him just standing there.
4. The coolest idea would have been some sort of jet pack so rather than spray a ton of baddies he can fly away.
5. There are less weapons and who would want a bloody clock on his cock!
6. The added armer isn’t necessary and it is just used to make the suit look good it is a piece designed for the army it can look like shit and no one would care!
7. The designer seems silly designing the helmet on the design from games is just silly and who would be scared of that mask which looks like a stretched out hockey mask!
In all the design is shabby and lacks usability there are almost no weapons except a spray can in an arm which is a hands on tool.
I give the weapons 1/10
I give the look of the suit 5/10
I give the idea of the suit 7/10
I give the fight power of the suit 2/10
And i give the tools positions 0/10
The overall suit is given a lame total of 15/50
With a Scorp corp rating of 15/50 this suit lacks many features and i would have preferred a more realistic idea like the Mark 2 from iron man (Film)
December 8th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
ok cool he kan walk now what?
December 23rd, 2008 at 6:07 am
All those are interesting ideas… however only one is actually near market viability (availability) and is actually practical.
Cyberdyne’s HAL suit works, isn’t retardedly expensive, and doesn’t make you ponderously fat.
I want one with a fuel cell on it