Super-soldier exoskeleton to get 3-day fuel cell powerpack A radical powered exoskeleton under development for use by the US military is to be fitted with fuel-cell power supplies which will increase its endurance from hours to days - and furnish juice for the burgeoning load of electronics carried by modern soldiers, too. Global arms behemoth Lockheed, developing the Human Universal …
Two flaws I can spot (though i'm no expert):
1. A good EMP device could cripple the forces that wear them, if one was to be developed.
2. A good shot could detonate the fuel cells, killing all in the vicinity of the poor soul that got it.
So to win tomorrow's wars, build a better electronics-buggering device. Either that or get plenty of target practice.
like most armour vs weapon races, an emp weapon comes out, emp protection comes out, vulnerable fuel cells targeted, better armour and more concelead fuel tanks. Repeat until next kind of armour comes out. Although we are yet to see a deployable emp device even though we've had planes/battletanks/warships/missiles/ccc that are probably far more scary then a battle armour clad marine.
Also normal bullets generally don't make things explode.
I can see how this could make jogging for miles with a 200lb load a breeze, but when the poor grunts gets shot at (as sometimes happens) and they hit the ground fast, how does it feel to have your body followed down by 200lb of luggage, and how the hell do they stand up again? Does the gadgetry include bionic arms?
And if you can now carry 200lb of stuff, they're going to have to dig a mighty deep foxhole to cover the massive backpack. The traditional soldier used to carry an entrenching tool (folding shovel) - does the new version include a mini-JCB?
and they call the helpdesk back in Blighty (well, forwarded to Bombay).
"Please enter your 64 digit serial number"
"If you are under attack by rocket fire, press 1"
If you are currently shot and unable to speak, gurgle blood into the microphone to acknowledge"
This is all going to go completely wrong. I can see it now, exoskeletons sprinting at 200kph with their ragged dead soldier strapped into it, fighting a war to end all wars with other exoskeletons based upon the single digit difference in their serial numbers. Disease-ridden children weeping until they are hurled into the sky as as missiles themselves by version 8 predator drones, aircraft carriers sitting up and sprouting legs and fighting herculean battles with an animated giant super norad robot.
Pass the Jamesons please.
> 1. A good EMP device could cripple the forces that wear them, if one was to be developed.
A good EMP device would be a serious hazard for *everything*. And if by 'cripple the forces' you mean 'level the playing field' you're quite correct... they're still worn by soldiers, after all.
> 2. A good shot could detonate the fuel cells, killing all in the vicinity of the poor soul that got it.
Watch less James Bond. Worst case here is that a hydrogen cell could cook off wich would be hazardous but these things can and will be engineered to not go up like grenades when dented. Well protected cells, or cells using less volatile fuel will merely be fire hazards when breached.
You may also find that soldiers don't stand shoulder to shoulder in any sort of combat situation any more. The 19th century called and asked for their tactics back.
Sorry to rain on the parade., but Lookheed wisely left out any specs re: the fuel cell type. Why? Because they are in effect claiming an energy density for it at least thirty if not fifty times that of Li-ion batteries. No such system exists ... not even close.
Hydrogen fuel cells, with the support systems for the hydrogen storage, hydrogen tanks, air handling, safety systems, and the actual fuel cell have an energy density just UNDER NiMH about 60- 80wh/kg for vehicles. I suspect even more "ruggedisation" would be needed for this, leaving us with maybe 40 wh/kg. That's in the ballpark of an ancient NiCad battery! Isn't the future just dazzling?
Other fuel cell tech, like methanol (insert history lesson re: methanol fuel and armed forces. Hint: drinking it may make you drunk, but also makes you blind), can beat Li-ion's density of around 200 wh/kg, but it doesn't come anywhere close to the at least 6000-10,000 wh/kg they are, in effect, claiming.
One word: Vaporware, doesn't mean they won't get a nice fat US taxpayer check to develop it for 10 years, or however long it takes for everyone to forget about it.
As I recall, vanilla Lithium Ion has a nice energy density, but a very crappy maximum dump current. That's why it's used in mobile phones and laptops, but not in anything that requires any real amounts of juice (I'm thinking RC models that require 30A to 100A of current.. or perhaps cyborg exoskeletons). Attempting to drag more current out of a Li-Ion than it is rated for will give you either a very expensive balloon, or a very expensive exothermic reaction.
Perhaps you mean Lithium Polymer, the technology that routinely allows a 25-30C dump rate? (That's C for capacity, so a 5Ah lipo pack with 30C maximum dump will give you 150A of juice before it either balloons or goes up in flames).
the only difference being an electrolyte suspended in a polymer or not. Both can be optimized for high power density (by optimizing the reactive area) or high energy density (by optimizing the amount of reactive chemical). Google A-123 for a company that works on the high power version of li-ion. Li-polymer cells are just another type of li-ion and can also be optimized for power or energy, but were originally marketed as being high power, like you suggest.
They've a much better version of the Exowhatnot in Avatar: the Lockheed people must have seen it and be getting worried that someone's looking at their files. Anyone reading Heinlein knew about it half a century ago. He also supplied a power system that these things would need, you twist it out of another universe using wiggling bent coat-hangers.
Mine is the lead-lined one standing over there ...
Wallace and Gromit look down.
I once sat in akind of strap-in chair in a computer arcade and realized I was trusting some dodgy program not to suddenly whip me round and break my neck.
Would you trust this exo-skeleton not to move your leg forward at 250g when you tell it to run but, say, happen to remove remove a memory stick at the same time as it's garbage collecting?
Coat... oh mine seems to have run off
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
