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"Science fiction has gotten more accurate as we've gotten closer to the present, because science fiction stories have not only attracted, but also generated current scientists."
- Larry Niven
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| Powered Armor (or Powered Suit) | ||
| An armored suit that magnifies the power of the soldier's muscles, along with other weapons. |
How can you fight alien bugs with superior strength and agility, not to mention a tough exoskeleton. Why, with your own powered "exoskeleton," of course.
| Our suits give us better eyes, better ears, stronger backs (to carry heavier weapons and more ammo), better legs, more intelligence (in the military meaning...), more firepower, greater endurance, less vulnerability.
 (Power Suit from 'Starship Troopers' by Robert Heinlein) A suit isn't a space suit - although it can serve as one. it is not primarily armor - although the Knights of the Round Table were not armored as well as we are. It isn't a tank - but a single M.I. [Mobile Infantry] private could take on a squadron of those things and knock them off unassisted... ...Suited up, you look like a big steel gorilla, armed with gorilla-sized weapons. The real genius in the design is that you don't have to control the suit; you just wear it, like your clothes, like skin. The secret lies in negative feedback and amplification. |
| Technovelgy from Starship Troopers,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1959 Additional resources -
|
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative research proposals on Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation (EHPA). The overall goal of this program is to develop devices and machines that will increase the speed, strength, and endurance of soldiers in combat environments. Projects will lead to self-powered, controllable, wearable exoskeletal devices and/or machines.
Heinlein borrowed and expanded on the idea of self-powered space armor from E.E. "Doc" Smith's novels of the late 1930's. I think that the specific idea of controlling it with negative feedback from the wearer's own movements is Heinlein's.
Also, note that the powered suit has a heads-up display.
Here's how it works, minus the diagrams. The inside of the suit is a mass of pressure receptors, hundreds of them. You push with the heel of your hand; the suit feels it, amplifies it, pushes with you to take the pressure off the receptors that gave the order to push.
You're a bit late to make the deadline, but here is the request for proposals from DARPA for EXOSKELETONS FOR HUMAN PERFORMANCE AUGMENTATION (EHPA):
PROGRAM OBJECTIVE AND DESCRIPTION:
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Starship Troopers
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to Starship Troopers
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Powered Armor (or Powered Suit)-related
news articles:
- DARPA Wants Exoskeletons
- HAL-5 Robot Suit
- HAL Robotic Suit Ready For Production
- Power Pedal Exoskeleton From Matsushita
- Sarcos Exoskeleton Video
- Human Universal Load Carrier Exoskeleton From Berkeley Bionics
- Robotic Suit For Farmers In Japan
- Warrior Web Exoskeleton For Soldiers Undergoes Tests
- Korea's Avatar Robot
- TALOS Exoskeleton Development Proceeding
- Russia Working On Military Exoskeletons
- 'Power Clothing' - The Seismic 'Super Suit'
- ROAM Robotics Skiing Exoskeleton
- 'Warrior Suit' Combat Exoskeleton Project Still Alive
| Liquid Body Armor For TALOS Exoskeleton |
| DIY Taser-Proof Clothing |
| Look Great In Your Garrison Bespoke Bulletproof Suit |
| Bionic Body Armor Makes You Dodge Bullets |
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'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
