Homebrewed Robot Exoskeleton In Alaska 202
museumpeace writes "CNET has an article about a robotic exoskeleton ginned up by tinkerer from Alaska There are a few cool pictures. The audacity of Mr. Owens project, if you believe the article, compares to the efforts of the old
Home Brew Computer Club when compared to the work of GE or
Toyota. Inspiration here comes more from sci-fi and video games than from industrial competition. The article is a good roundup of MECHA related developments, some of which sprang from DARPA money, so I am glad at least a few of my tax dollars are having some real geek fun."
Obvious Anime Influence. (Score:3, Insightful)
Limited Usefulness (Score:5, Insightful)
A mecha would be standing 20 feet in the battlefied, an open and tempting target to everything from bombers to tanks to helicopters and to RPGs. It would have limited mobility, be extremely difficult to keep in working condition, and will have less load capacity than its tracked or wheeled counterparts. In short, it would look cool, but would be a useless coffin.
In BattleTech, they make up for the obvious disadvantages of a mecha by giving them advantages over vehicles. Mecha are more reliable, more maneuvarable, able to take more damage and continue to function, and can carry more weapons. Even then, if you pit a balanced vehicle force against a balanced mecha force, ton for ton, credit for credit, the vehicles can easily overpower the mecha in most circumstances.
I don't want to discourage this backyard project. After all, how many inventions were made when there was no necessity, but a necessity was found at a later time? But I do want folks to exercise a bit of common sense. If mecha were such a great idea, we'd have used them in WWII. We certainly had the technology to build them back then.
Re:Techical knowledge is there, but not with this (Score:2, Insightful)
Aliens got mechas right (Score:2, Insightful)
They'd make excellent car crushers, too
hope he didn't forget.... (Score:1, Insightful)
i hope he's got intentions to incorporate some sorta personal heating system....-40 and metal is not a good combination
Re:Sorry... (Score:2, Insightful)
Back in the day a friend and I were working on designs for a workable mech. About 10ft tall. Chicken-Leg design.
For balance we used a custom designed counter-weight system that was tied into the drivetrain. From the models we built, it worked great - but only for flat surfaces.
Mechs and bumps/hills/ditches are a realy tough design problem. But just balanced walking is a huge problem to tackle first. Honda poured billions into the ASIMO just to get stable balanced walking.
Re:Limited Usefulness (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think there is any inherent reason why powered exo-skeletons would need to be anything like that big and provided they are reliable and able to cope with much the same terrain as general infantry I think they'd be quite effective in any battle situation.
I would guess the benefits an effective exo-skeleton could bring are in increased carrying capacity for the solider allowing them to carry more food, ammunition etc which would allow them to operate longer in the field with less reliance on supply lines.
Another aim would be to design a skeleton which enabled the solider to move more quickly and over longer distances than would normally be possible and maybe provide some increased protection from unfriendly weaponary.
I don't think anyone is suggesting building giant robots because as you say they would just be too easy to target and destroy.
I am guessing again that the key components in such a suit would be a lightweight, reliable powersource which preferably doesn't need a massive amount of fuel and strong lightweight materials for the skeleton it's self - this is in addition to all the wizzery needed to actually get the skeleton to function in the first place.
Any army which does develop an effective exo skeleton would be able to field a very dangerous weapon indeed, something capable of deploying powerful firepower, fielded in dispersed units of hard to hit small units, capable of sustained attacks into your territory, able to be inserted quickly and secretly in helicopters, parachutes etc.
Re:Limited Usefulness (Score:3, Insightful)
That'd be cool anyhow. Even if it wouldn't be as fun as picking up your neighbor's house and hiding it while he is gone to the store. Too bad the huge footprints leading to the new location of the home would probably give you away.
Upright? (Score:2, Insightful)
A crane could easily stand it up later, but if it is going to work at all, it would need to be able to stand after a stumble anyway.
Sure, it looks cooler standing, and probably annoys his neighbours more, but it seems like a very poor design decision.
Re:Techical knowledge is there, but not with this (Score:3, Insightful)
Real science is better than demolition derby science any day. Instead of a couple of humanoid megasaurs lumbering around, imagine two giant robots nimble enough to do Kung-Fu! (Duking it out with giant clubs!)
Re:How about some prize money... (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting idea, but how would you differentiate a "mecha" from a forklift in this contest?
It seems to me that a "mecha", like its human inspiration, is most useful as a creature for general purposes, unlike a spaceship which is meant to carry a specific load to a specific location. Thus, the contest should be designed to prove flexibility and generality, rather than competence at a specific task. Lots of industrial robots can already do very specific things very well. The human hand, on the other hand, is so useful because it can lift a hundred pounds as well as pick up an egg.
Re:Techical knowledge is there, but not with this (Score:3, Insightful)
1) Worked so hard and long (due to fiancial pressures) that their joins develop slop
2) The hydraulic valves only have a limited amount of proportional control
With a well maintained machine and good proportinal control valves, hydraulic force can be applied very smoothly and controllably. The power/size radio is incredible and is really required for something like this.