US Special Ops Command plans to have some initial TALOS exoskeleton suit prototypes by 2018.
Progress is being made on exoskeletons for US special forces. The exoskeletons are designed to increase strength and protection and help keep valuable operators alive when they kick down doors and engage in combat.
The technologies currently being developed include.
Bionic Power makes wearable technology for charging batteries. Today, we are focused on developing our PowerWalk® Kinetic Energy Harvester for military use and will begin multi-unit field trials with the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps next year. In the future, we see our walk-recharge technology being used in disaster zones and remote worksites, and by consumers in recreational, emergency preparedness and backup applications.
Pressure is on DARPA by US Military to speed up on completing the soft Exosuit.
The clothing-like Soft Exosuit has been described as a “Wearable Robot” by the U.S. Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) that’s commissioning universities and research institutions to advance this military technology. The DARPA Soft Exosuit is part of the agency’s Warrior Web program.
A prototype Soft Exosuit had a series of webbing straps around the lower half of the body with a low-power microprocessor and a network of flexible strain sensors. These electronics act as the “brain” and “nervous system” of the Soft Exosuit. They continuously monitor data signals, including suit tension, wearer position (walking, running, crouched) and more.
In 2014, DARPA awarded $2.9 million to The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University to further develop its Soft Exosuit, other versions of which might eventually help persons (military and civilian) with limited mobility.
Friends have been asking me to write something on space exploration and my campaign policy on it, so here it is just out on TechCrunch:
When people think about rocket ships and space exploration, they often imagine traveling across the Milky Way, landing on mysterious planets and even meeting alien life forms.
In reality, humans’ drive to get off Planet Earth has led to tremendous technological advances in our mundane daily lives — ones we use right here at home on terra firma.
I recently walked through Boston’s Logan International Airport; a NASA display reminded me that GPS navigation, anti-icing systems, memory foam and LED lights were all originally created for space travel. Other inventions NASA science has created include the pacemaker, scratch-resistant lenses and the solar panel.
These types of advancements are one of the most important reasons I am hoping our next U.S. president will try to jump-start the American space program — both privately and publicly. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear any of them are talking about the issue. But they should be. As we enter the transhumanist age — the era of bionic limbs, brain implants and artificial intelligence — space exploration might once again dramatically lead us forward in discovering the most our species can become.
Nice!
Our skin is our largest organ. A gateway between our brain and the rest of the world.
Imagine then a scene where skin could communicate what’s going on inside a human body. It could inform surgeons, provide alerts when our body is about to fall ill, or even diagnose diseases inside another human being, simply through the sense of touch.
University of Tokyo scientist Takao Someya is making that scene a reality.
Fun stuff.
Johnny Matheny’s handshake is friendly, confident and firm — though not in the bone-crushing manner favoured by some of the alpha types here in the Pentagon.
What is remarkable is that Matheny’s proffered hand is not actually his. It is part of a robotic prosthesis researchers hope one day could help transform the lives of countless amputees.
“In the beginning, you had to think pretty hard about individual movements,” Matheny said as he demonstrated his mastery of the black metallic limb, clenching the fist and swiveling his wrist in a natural-looking motion.
Expansion of BMI and Bionics has now come to Purdue University.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Researchers at Purdue have been working on technology that will help pave the way for the future people who use artificial limbs.
“The point of these research labs is to discover new technologies that we can translate into the real world and make the world a better place,” Purdue Center for Implantable Devices Director Pedro Irazoqui said.
Bionic limbs are artificial limbs which use signals sent from the brain, nerves and muscles to operate as the user wishes — just like real limbs work.
