DARPA Funds Harvard's Soft Exoskeletal Suit

An anonymous reader writes: The military and private contractors have been toying with exoskeletal combat suits for a while, but Harvard's Wyss Institute has a new take on the concept. Rather than using a hard metal frame and the massively overpowered mechanical servos necessary to move it, the Soft Exosuit is a lightweight mesh of webbing combined with a series of strain sensors and basic microprocessors. "The suit mimics the action of leg muscles and tendons when a person walks, and provides small but carefully timed assistance at the leg joints without restricting the wearer's movement." The suit continually monitors its wearer's body position, movement, and muscular strain, providing small amounts of targeted support. The team has now received $2.9 million in funding from DARPA to refine the suit's design. They say they'll be working on medical applications for the suit as well as military ones.

Not the same as "hard" exo-skeletons.

[Megol]

This is for improving endurance of a soldier, not for improving weight carrying capacity.

Re:Not the same as "hard" exo-skeletons.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you improve the endurance of a soldier you *have* improved their weight carrying capacity. But I get what you're saying. They won't be able to lift 300lbs instead of 100lbs and put it on a shelf. However, they might be able to realistically haul say 80lbs of gear 15 miles instead of 50 lbs of gear. Of course that might be how much the batteries weigh to keep the thing running for a day. :)

Re:

[cyn1c77]

If you improve the endurance of a soldier you *have* improved their weight carrying capacity. But I get what you're saying. They won't be able to lift 300lbs instead of 100lbs and put it on a shelf. However, they might be able to realistically haul say 80lbs of gear 15 miles instead of 50 lbs of gear. Of course that might be how much the batteries weigh to keep the thing running for a day. :)

You clearly don't get what he was saying!

We want HALO-like suits that will let us jump 50 feet high, jump out of an airplane and land safely with no parachute, and lift 500 lbs with one hand while accurately shooting at something a mile away with a fully automatic weapon in the other.

This soft-suit is like increasing the fuel economy on a Civic when you really want a Ferrari.

Re: Not the same as "hard" exo-skeletons.

[gzuckier]

Or run at 40 mph, or leap short buildings. Realistically, this should be a boon to people with neuromuscular problems in the legs.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You've given an excellent example of racism, prejudice, and profiling, but probably not the one you intended.

Re: And how much more effective...

[gzuckier]

Stop following the herd and having black skin. Be an individual and bleach it. No cops ever shot Michael Jackson.

Hmm

[future assassin]

Since this suit doesn't bare the weight/force wouldn't this put much more strain on the muscles/joint/etc vs a hard exoskeleton structure?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

No, as per TFS it bears load at the joints, where it's going to put more strain is on the skeletal system.

Re:

[future assassin]

No, as per TFS it bears load at the joints, where it's going to put more strain is on the skeletal system.

Which is just as bad, it dosn't take much to herniate a disk and fall over in immobilizing pain. What about hernias, buddy of mine just went through a nasty hernia from lifting weights in the gym

All funded by you, the American taxpayer

[Mister Liberty]

... soon to be given to private enterprise freely, involving you --once again-- as buyer of 'neat' gaming and 3D devices, prosthetics, etc.
Note how many times you spent money.
Capitalism -- schmapitalism! State intervention, say I.

Re:

[sillybilly]

I wouldn't wanna be stuck in one of these things when it malfunctions.

Re:

[martas]

Thus helping the economy and overall quality of life. That has been the federal funding model for American academia for decades, and I for one think it's a much better idea than the state trying to get ideas off the ground themselves. Would you really be happier if the government had a "department of 'neat' gaming and 3D devices" hiring engineers and marketers and designers? Making annual product announcements like the Apple Special Event? Or would you rather the government not fund science and engineering

When I imagine a Harvard exoskeleton suit

[Applehu Akbar]

I'm envisioning a business garment that allows hedge fund managers and corporate lawyers to jump over tall buildings.

Re: When I imagine a Harvard exoskeleton suit

[BundyGil]

Shouldn't that be: allow hedge fund managers and corporate lawyer to jump off buidings, rather than over them. A far more satisfyiag scenario.

So when is the Captain America exosuit coming?

[whodat54321]

I think that if they can get muscle wires working well enough, this suit has plenty of potential in either hard or soft form. For soldiers, it could automate the manual marching process and do much for endurance, but has limitations in combat situations if it's called on to do things the human body couldn't do well. It still would need some sort of power generation while in use to keep that system running as long as the human does.

Re:

[currently_awake]

You want the body armour for combat use, so you want an iron man suit. Having powered legs to increase your capacity is useful too, though not as intimidating. As for the batteries- you can run a fuel cell off of diesel using a reformer, and that's easy to get on a battlefield.

First?

[Dereck1701]

They may be the first to actually begin development of such a exosuit but this kind of application has been imagined in multiple fictional accounts(Spriggan movie & Crisis game series off the top of my head). It'll be interesting to see a full fledged pro-type (most of the stuff in the videos looked like non functional demo gear) but last I heard our artificial muscle tech was pretty pitiful. There was a big claim a while back that a breakthrough had been made using modified sewing thread and fishing

This has been tried before...

[TheRealHocusLocus]

But nature always finds a way. Teeth become stronger and sharper to pierce the hide directly, armored gullets and crops evolve to subject swallowed prey to slow grinding until the hide is pierced and the juices leak out. Suction arms pin the prey to rock as a horny beak drills through the exoskeleton. Birds lift the prey into the sky and let gravity do the hard work, gathering the yummy bits from the wreckage.

The military should be focusing its research on making soldiers better at hiding, smelling and tas

Crysis idea, stolen

[fxsoap]

MAXIMUM ARMOR could become a common phrase in the special ops community in 20 years while they wear these suits.