The Military Gets Mightier Source: BBC News Online January 12, 2001
The US military is planning to turn soldiers into
supermen by fitting them with powered exoskeletons.
The research arm of the US military is spending $50m to
develop new technologies that will improve the speed, strength and
endurance of soldiers.
The research programme is aiming to give soldiers better
protection against enemy fire, the ability to tote bigger guns, run
faster, communicate better and help them avoid friendly fire.
The first trials of the technology are expected within
the decade.
Power play
This month, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (Darpa) is expected to sign contracts to kick off the project
to develop powered exoskeletons for its ground troops.
The contract signings follow a year of meetings and
assessments run by Darpa to find the most promising technologies.
So far, Darpa, the main research and development
organisation for the US Department of Defense, has not said which
ideas it favours, but it has set out the broad goals of the programme
which calls for technologies that can help troops:
* carry heavier packs; Dr Ephrahim Garcia, co-ordinator of the exoskeleton
project, said its demands were "formidable" and much of the initial
research was speculative to prove concepts rather than develop
finished products.
"The controls, the power requirements, the human
interface to the machine are all things that we do not know if we can
do yet," he said. "There is a huge challenge here."
He added that the exoskeletons must be something that
troops can wear and use without thinking rather than something they
have to operate.
Suited up
The powered suits will help soldiers carry and use
larger weapons and to take heavier loads into battle. Currently,
soldiers carry a pack that is no more than a third of their body
weight and usually take far less into combat.
Field trials have shown that troops typically dump
anything too bulky or heavy to carry for long distances.
The exoskeletons will also have to be almost silent to
operate and use fuel very efficiently. And soldiers must be able to
use them for at least 24 hours before needing to refuel.
Early work sponsored by Darpa has used pneumatic muscles
or deformable magnets to power artificial limbs or suits that soldiers
could wear. Trials of a Springwalker system helped its developers
travel at speeds in excess of 24 km/h (15 mph).
Stuck in the mud
The exoskeletons are expected to include a sensor web
that expands a soldier's field of vision, passes on information about
battlefield conditions, using GPS or thermal cameras, helps to
co-ordinate groups of other soldiers and lessens the chance of being
hit by friendly fire.
Conducting fabrics could be used to swap data between
sensors, and wireless networks could pass information between squads
or soldiers.
The suits could also act as body armour or have
physiological monitoring systems that let officers know the health of
the troops under their command.
Field trials of mock-ups of future systems on soldiers
running a cross-country course revealed the limitations of some
approaches.
Visors on helmets that could double as screens got in
the way of rifle sights or made the headgear bulky and unstable. Other
sensors or power packs distributed around the body of a soldier got in
the way when combatants were crawling and made it harder for them to
hide.
by Mark Ward
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1112000/1112411.stm
* march faster over longer distances;
* lift heavier objects and use larger weapons;
* leap extraordinary heights and/or distances.