Exoskeleton Systems For Military and Civil Uses

bobbymike

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http://defensetech.org/2013/10/09/video-socom-wants-to-build-an-iron-man-suit/

DefenseTech:

Special Operation Command wants a suit its operators can wear that features liquid body armor, built-in computers and offers super human strength. Essentially, the Pentagon wants to outfit its special operators in Iron Man suits. Officials from U.S. Special Operation Command issued a formal request to researchers to help them build this suit the military is calling the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS). The request comes right from the top — Adm. William McRaven, USSOCOM commander.

Some of America’s top scientists from labs such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology are pitching in on the project. MIT engineers are working on a liquid body armor made of magnetorheological fluids that “transform from liquid to solid in milliseconds when a magnetic field or electrical current is applied,” according to an Army statement. But the liquid body armor is only a portion of the suit. Leaders of the project also want the TALOS to include physiological subsystems that can monitor core body temperature, skin temperature, heart rate, body position and hydration levels. “[The] requirement is a comprehensive family of systems in a combat armor suit where we bring together an exoskeleton with innovative armor, displays for power monitoring, health monitoring, and integrating a weapon into that — a whole bunch of stuff that RDECOM is playing heavily in,” said Lt. Col. Karl Borjes, a Army Reserach, Development and Engineering Command science advisor assigned to SOCOM, in a statement.
 
...which, I assume, has to be affordable, waterproof, cool in summer and warm in winter, easy to maintain in field conditions without engineering support, and able to fit through a hole in a fence. Oh, and it has to be able to operate almost without fuel and be light enough to carry over many kilometres even if it is powered down. :) Yes, I'd be asking anyone for help that I could talk into it...

Should be a very interesting package of technologies.
 
Published on Jun 2, 2013

The US Special Operations Command is looking for revolutionary new gear assisting troops in exceeding human performance in combat. The idea sounds similar to a science fiction tale, but if the command will be successful in its quest -- this time it may be real. The command has posted a Request For Information (RFI) to government research centers, academy and industry, to provide information that could contribute to the evolution of the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS.

http://youtu.be/P0RvxWRC45E
 
"Socom Leads Development of ‘Iron Man’ Suit"
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

Source:
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=121419

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31, 2013 – U.S. Special Operations Command is using unprecedented outreach and collaboration to develop what its commander hopes will be revolutionary capabilities: a suit that’s been likened to the one worn by the “Iron Man” movies superhero that offers operators better protection, enhanced performance and improved situational awareness.

The Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS, is the vision of Navy Adm. William H. McRaven, Socom’s commander. He challenged industry and defense representatives at a Socom conference in May to come up with the concepts and technologies to make the suit a reality.

Exactly what capabilities the TALOs will deliver is not yet clear, explained Michael Fieldson, Socom’s TALOS project manager. The goal is to provide operators lighter, more efficient full-body ballistics protection and super-human strength. Antennas and computers embedded into the suit will increase the wearer’s situational awareness by providing user-friendly and real-time battlefield information.

Integrated heaters and coolers will regulate the temperature inside the suit. Embedded sensors will monitor the operator’s core body temperature, skin temperature, heart rate, body position and hydration levels. In the event that the operator is wounded, the suit could feasibly start administering the first life-saving oxygen or hemorrhage controls.

Fieldson admitted that the analogy to the suit that the Tony Stark character wore in the “Iron Man” movies may be a bit of a stretch. The TALOS, for example, isn’t expected to fly.

But beyond that, there’s little that Fieldson -- or anyone else at Socom -- is ready to rule out.

In a departure from past practices of introducing new products piecemeal, adding bulk and weight to operators’ kit, the TALOS will be a fully integrated “system of systems,” Fieldson said. To offset the weight of computers, sensors and armor that make up the suit, operators will have an exoskeleton -- a mechanism that carries the brunt of the load.

“The intent is to have this fully integrated system so you can provide the most capability at the lowest impact to the soldier,” Fieldson said. “We think there is some efficiency to be gained if all the equipment is fully integrated as opposed to different components that are simply assembled on the human.”

Keeping the systems and the exoskeleton powered will require more than today’s batteries can deliver. So along with the TALOS technologies, Socom is calling on the scientific and technical community to come up with reliable and portable power sources.

“We are really looking at stretching the bounds of science and technology,” Fieldson said.

That’s led Socom to reach out to partners within DOD as well as industry and academia for help in pushing today’s technological limits.

The command is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as well as U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center and the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, among other DOD organizations, to tap into projects already underway.

DARPA, for example, is making headway on its Warrior Web project, designed to boost troops’ stamina and carrying capacity without sacrificing speed or agility. The concept includes a lightweight undersuit that would augment the efforts of the wearer’s own muscles.

“Many of the individual technologies currently under development show real promise to reduce injury and fatigue and improve endurance,” said Army Lt. Col. Joseph Hitt, DARPA’s Warrior Web program manager. “Now we’re aiming to combine them -- and hopefully some new ones, too -- into a single system that nearly every soldier could wear and would provide decisive benefits under real-world conditions.”

The Natick lab is busy identifying high-technology armor and mobility technologies with plans to integrate them into a first-generation TALOS system ready for demonstration by the end of June, reported Greg Kanagaki, project engineer for Natick’s Unmanned Equipment and Human Augmentation Systems Team.

Natick personnel also are serving as subject-matter experts for the TALOS project, particularly in the areas of mobility, human performance and thermal management, Kanagaki said.

Meanwhile, officials at the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command say their programs have a direct application to TALOS as well.

“[The] requirement is a comprehensive family of systems in a combat armor suit where we bring together an exoskeleton with innovative armor, displays for power monitoring, health monitoring, and integrating a weapon into that -- a whole bunch of stuff that RDECOM is playing heavily in,” said Army Lt. Col. Karl Borjes, the command’s science adviser.

“RDECOM cuts across every aspect making up this combat armor suit,” he said. “It’s advanced armor. It’s communications, antennas. It’s cognitive performance. It’s sensors, miniature-type circuits. That’s all going to fit in here, too.”

Socom has called on the private sector, too, inviting not just its traditional industry partners, but also those who have never before worked with the command, to participate in the TALOS program.

“There is no one industry that can build it,” Socom’s Senior Enlisted Advisor Army Command Sgt. Maj. Chris Faris said during a panel discussion at the command’s MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., headquarters, as reported by the Defense Media Network.

The outreach has generated a lot of interest. Socom’s TALOS planning session this past summer attracted representatives of 80 colleges, 10 universities and four national laboratories. At a demonstration in July, 80 companies demonstrated technologies ranging from advanced body armor, some using liquids that turn solid on impact, to power supplies to exoskeleton mechanisms.

Socom’s goal, Fieldson said, is to have a TALOS prototype within the next year and to have the suit ready for full field testing within five years. That timetable is revolutionary for the military research, development and acquisition world, even for rapid-equipping programs.

As the only combatant command with acquisition authority, Socom is able to accelerate the TALOS project, Fieldson explained. The command’s acquisition executive and research and development staff share a building at MacDill Air Force Base, which he said promotes close collaboration and speedy decision-making.

“We have access that is nontraditional and that absolutely helps us,” Fieldson said. “We can bounce ideas back and forth against the leadership and ensure that what we are doing makes sense … I think that is critical to trying to develop this system within the timeline we are working toward.”

Also, in a departure from traditional development projects, Socom’s Acquisition Center staff established an innovation cell to lead the effort, advised by operators and focused on transforming business processes to solve the extreme integration challenges associated with TALOS.

“Because of the technical challenges and the compressed timeline, we are going to take more ownership on the government side than we typically take,” Fieldson said.

“We are going to go in and make some decisions that we sometimes rely on industry partners to make for us,” he said. “That allows us to reach out to a broader audience. That way, if there is a great idea in some nontraditional organization, we can integrate it” without relying on a commercial company to do so.

“We are really changing the process,” Fieldson said. “And the reason we are doing that is to try to streamline the overall effort and drive down both the cost and the schedule. That way, we get the best possible equipment to our force as quickly as possible.”

Although the TALOS is initially intended for special operators involved in high-risk missions, it has implications for the conventional force as well, Fieldson said.

“We have a long history at Socom of developing things first and then the technology moving out to the broader force,” he said. “We fully expect that to happen with this one as well. I think there will be a lot of spinoff technologies that the broader force will be able to use.”

Meanwhile, McRaven remains the suit’s No. 1 proponent.

“I’m very committed to this,” he told industry representatives at a July planning forum. “I’d like that last operator that we lost to be the last operator we lose in this fight or the fight of the future. And I think we can get there.”
 
DARPA Warrior Web

Source:
http://www.sarna.net/news/as-predicted-special-forces-to-receive-powered-armor/
 

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Don't be surprised to see graphene used in body armour in the near future, after all it's going to be used in phone casings towards the end of this year, so maybe not as far fetched as it may initially seem. The first video though, really? There really must be some juveniles in the DoD!
 
MrT said:
Don't be surprised to see graphene used in body armour in the near future, after all it's going to be used in phone casings towards the end of this year, so maybe not as far fetched as it may initially seem. The first video though, really? There really must be some juveniles in the DoD!


no.. they just know that the public loves Ironman and are trying to exploit the marvel film's popularity for their own ends..
 
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20140211/NEWS/302110014/SOCOM-working-Iron-Man-suit
 
Until they substantially increase power concentrations in batteries or decrease the weight and increase the power output from generators, this sort of thing won't get out of the Lab IMHO.
 
Kadija_Man said:
Until they substantially increase power concentrations in batteries or decrease the weight and increase the power output from generators, this sort of thing won't get out of the Lab IMHO.
would challenge anyone to say you are incorrect.. The problems are even much larger. Athough there is a wave of research and many competitive concepts, there appears no hint that, realizable and worth the resource dismount augmentation etc. would require a Manhattan Project size endeavor encompassing multiple types of layers and systems. One early focus we don't hear enough about is, whole body systems absolute need to absorb impulse pressures.
 
http://breakingdefense.com/2014/02/socoms-iron-man-suit-talos-sees-astounding-progress-adm-mcraven/?utm_source=Breaking+Defense&utm_campaign=38c9ec364b-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4368933672-38c9ec364b-407814345
 
bobbymike said:
http://breakingdefense.com/2014/02/socoms-iron-man-suit-talos-sees-astounding-progress-adm-mcraven/?utm_source=Breaking+Defense&utm_campaign=38c9ec364b-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4368933672-38c9ec364b-407814345

"Three unpowered prototype suits are being assembled and should be delivered to SOCOM in June,..."
and no mention of big Army, still speaks.
 
Kadija_Man said:
Until they substantially increase power concentrations in batteries or decrease the weight and increase the power output from generators, this sort of thing won't get out of the Lab IMHO.

What we might see is some kind of energy recovery / active-assistance system for long marches. By reducing the effective load on the soldier, you can probably double marching speeds (or backpack weights). This would allow a special-operations team to carry a lot of additional supplies (e.g. guided mortar rounds) further faster and with greater autonomy. Current technologies could theoretically do this (some calculations with miniature turbine power, active energy recovery pistons, or even diesels show favourable ratios).

Of course, you'd want to be able quickly shed the suit when in combat. You'd have to be able to walk long distances in rough terrain comfortably and reliability will also be an issue.

I figure we might see some type of augmented system for rough terrain work by mid century.
 
Conventional fuel options are generally don't complement circa 2020 pwr requirements.. a dismount augmentation strategy's pwr requirement including sought lethality/full spectrum defense etc. isn't there w/o a Manhattan Project size endeavor. When a full capability is realized it may be used for raids only and not be "shedable" during operations for instance. ..guided mortars for instance are too large for small tm independance..Many many issues.
 
McRaven mentions 'protection to survive coming through the door' I wonder if there is some major advance in body armor for this suit as well that maybe will help Spec Ops soldiers without the need for the 'powered' part to come to fruition which may takes much longer to develop.
 
An unpowered conformal body layer may well be the first development priority, as how bodies fit/interface to the subsequent hard layers may one of the largest issues. Likewise conformal's capability needs to be maximized before hard exos are introduced.
 
http://defensetech.org/2014/04/29/congress-wants-more-control-of-special-ops-iron-man-suit/#more-22796
 
Thank you for posting this historically telling story bobbymike.
 
Helmet for TALOS?

http://gizmodo.com/the-armys-new-helmet-design-comes-with-built-in-a-c-1575643048
 
bobbymike said:
Helmet for TALOS?

http://gizmodo.com/the-armys-new-helmet-design-comes-with-built-in-a-c-1575643048

Reminds me of the Blake's Seven trooper's helmet

$T2eC16N,!)0E9s37E2uLBRjlNlu(Pw~~60_35.JPG
 
http://defensetech.org/2014/06/16/darpa-closer-to-urban-combat-spidey-soldiers/#more-23081
 
This is the Franco-Swiss RB-3D lower body exo skeleton mounted with ballistic armour etc at this year Eurosatory mil expo

Looks awkward as hell :eek:
EUROSATORY_20140617_0094.jpg
 
Instead of trying to get exosuits to work in combat, how about using them first for engineers / support personal? Should be an easier first step.
 
What I see as logical first steps:

1) Energy recovery boots/leg attachments to allow dismounted infantry to carry heavier packs longer distances at speed (but discarded in combat).

2) Body armour that is light weight and flexible enough that you can crawl through fences.

3) Incorporating anti-sniper sensors (acoustic and flash detection) in helmets.

So, I'd fund three-separate programs rather than paying for expensive concept art.
 
1) Is probably better served with regular exoskeleton technology, as the only methods that can provide sufficient energy recovery require notable extra weight or would further interfere with a soldier's gait, which will lead to foot injuries far quicker (the exoskeleton in the first place may cause issues with that, but if you're using some extra soft mechanism in the soles of the boot, that's likely going to cause extra friction for the foot and lead to quick-appearing blisters).

2) Lightweight and flexible armour is great, but I hope you were using crawling through fences as an indicator, not an intended purpose (that kind of action would be very rare; your fences are either (practically) non-existent or impenetrable to a human with or without armour).

3) Is something is something I'm really surprised doesn't exist; flash detection maybe not, but there already exists a few systems that can fairly accurately predict sources of fire through acoustics. Integrate it into a streamline helmet attachment and put hydrophobic coatings over the microphones and I don't see why it couldn't be put into service today (general infantry might be a bit irresponsible with the equipment, but just like M203's or M249's, you don't need every soldier to carry one.
 



The Prowler, is Revision’s Human Augmentation device. It increases a soldiers metabolic reserve while preventing short and long term injuries. The Prowler allows our soldiers to be more lethal on the objective while increasing deployability through reduced injury. The Prowler, has been tested by SOCOM and CANSOFCOM, and is under contract with the US Army Labs Natick. Shown to provide a 33% mechanical advantage, the Prowler proves to be the next human augmentation system.
 
I hope this fits the criteria for the thread?



Russian army "future soldier" stuff.
Google translation

<blockquote>Soon the Russian army will receive a new generation combat gear. Now she is going through a cycle of military trials in different climatic zones. To supplying the formations and units of the new Ministry of Defense outfit was dedicated to a special meeting, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and MIC chairman Dmitry Rogozin.
The meeting was held in Moscow Klimovsk based TSNIITOCHMASH - leading research institute for the development of small arms and remedies for the Armed Forces and the various law enforcement agencies. It was attended by almost all the heads of the leading designers and national defense related occupational with the manufacture of small arms, ammunition and personal protective equipment.
Dmitry Rogozin said that "attention given to this issue at different levels can be easily explained, since the use of military equipment is being addressed the vast majority of combat missions in local conflicts, and special counter-terrorist operations."
Indeed, there are times when, for example, motostrelok went into battle, at best, a bulletproof vest, and even without it in the past. Outfit of the modern soldier makes him look like a cyborg fiction. The soldier is not just a shooter, but a full-fledged combat unit with good protection and individual controls. Fighting equipment includes functionally and structurally linked, elements of five major systems: the defeat, defense, intelligence and control, life support, and even energy.



In addition to equipment, developed in the interests of the Defense Ministry, Dmitry Rogozin shown and the one that is produced to protect the anti-terrorism special forces soldiers. This "Centurion", "Sherpa", "Legionnaire", "Gladiator". According to the developers, it is much better that that is used by the similar units abroad.

</blockquote>


rest at the link
http://www.rg.ru/2014/03/14/soveshanie-site.html


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muttbutt said:
I hope this fits the criteria for the thread?



Russian army "future soldier" stuff.


f1f4b4.jpg

Wow, starting to look like something straight out of a video game...

The velcro on the front of the handshield so you can temporarily stick it onto velcroed areas of a uniform/armor to free your hands is a nice touch (assuming no unit badge was supposed to be there). There seemed to be a lot of velcro on the overall suit, much more than needed for unit badges and such.
 
Pics of the Polish armys project "Tytan" protypes future soldier ensembles.

ogmejd.jpg


15o877q.jpg


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1zmcocy.jpg
 
Poland orders Tytan soldier system

Remigiusz Wilk, Warsaw - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly

27 June 2014

1526468_-_thumb1.jpg

Polish Army Tytan future soldier system. Source: PHO

The Polish Armament Inspectorate signed two contracts on 27 June for the Tytan (Titan) future soldier system worth more than USD1.5 billion.

Under a framework agreement, the Polish Ministry of Defence (MoD) will finance research and development for the 27 different subcomponents within Tytan, and will retain intellectual rights over the system.

The framework agreement also guarantees that the companies involved in the development of the Tytan system will receive an order for at least 14,000 equipment sets between 2018 and 2022. This values the framework agreement at about PLN5 billion (USD1.63 billion), and doesn't include some of the Tytan subcomponent developments, such as the MSBS-5.56 modular firearms family, that are financed independently from the Tytan programme.

The second agreement completes negotiations between the 13 different organisations involved in the Tytan programme. These are: PCO, Polish Defence Holding (PHO), Bumar Elektronika, FB Lucznik, PSO Maskpol, WB Electronics, WAT, MESKO, ZM Dezamet, WIML, WIHE, RADMOR, and ZM Tarnow.

Speaking following the contract signings, Deputy Defence Minister Czeslaw Mroczek said: "The Polish industry has given a long-term contract for couple of billions zlotys, which gives Polish industry solid base for long-standing existence.

"The agreement gives industry the guarantee to keep the Tytan programme running even if the government changes in next election." According to Mroczek, the MoD is also keen to support potential export sales of the Tytan system.

The first phase of the project will see the creation and integration of the 27 different parts of the Tytan soldier system. These include five different subsystem sets: C4I; observation and reconnaissance (including various weapon sights); armament and ammunition; clothing; ballistic protection; and nuclear, biological, and chemical protection. A new camouflage pattern for the Polish Army will also be developed.

The first phase of research and development will conclude in 2015, and will be followed by a test and qualification phase running until 2017. The first low-rate initial production Tytan sets will be tested by the 17 Mechanized Brigade from Miedzyrzecz. when this has been completed, serial production is scheduled to start in 2018.
 

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