Have you been waiting for a legion of half-man, half-machine storm troopers to descend upon your city and blaze a round of hellfire in all general directions? If you said yes, that's kind of weird. At any rate, you can consider yourself one step closer to cyborg annihilation thanks to a company called
Sarcos and its semi-scary exoskeleton -- which will make any regular old soldier into a Terminator-like killing machine (as far as we can tell). Sure, they demo the unit lifting heavy equipment and reducing fatigue of the user, but we know what this thing is
really for -- and it doesn't involve food drops. Check the video after the break to have your mind shattered into a million delicious pieces.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Eric @ Nov 25th 2007 4:08AM
Engadget, what are you doing up past your bedtime?
LondonConsultant @ Nov 25th 2007 5:02AM
But I'm glad they did... That was a great video!
Alex Knutson @ Nov 25th 2007 4:09AM
oh HELLS ya
Ian @ Nov 25th 2007 4:10AM
did anyone notice at about 2:25 (in the clip) that one of the soldiers looked like a marine from halo?
Syntax Error @ Nov 25th 2007 4:11AM
It's gonna be a while until we'll see those uber super suits from Crysis.
Josh @ Nov 25th 2007 3:23PM
Thats what i was just thinking - those things are hardly bulky at all and just look bad ass - this thing looks really massive...
GrizzlyAdams @ Nov 25th 2007 4:11AM
Where do I sign up to get my Mark I MJOLNIR armor?
anthone @ Nov 25th 2007 5:36AM
lol i know right!
Jeff @ Nov 25th 2007 4:16AM
i gotta get one of those.
i do like that master chief cover they had on display. walk around like a total bamf.
Nate @ Nov 25th 2007 7:38AM
That was exactly what I was thinking...
Better yet, when are they going to come out with anything like they had in Aliens?
Saint Dumb Ox @ Nov 25th 2007 12:24PM
They already have those things...they're called steady-cam mounts. Been around since the Rocky 1.
R @ Nov 25th 2007 9:09PM
I think Nate was referring to the power loader Ripley used against the Queen alien, not the smart gun (steady-cam thing). Am I right, Nate?
kyle allen @ Nov 26th 2007 11:55PM
@ nate i went to seattle to be with family over thanksgiving break, so whale i was up there i went to the sci fi museum near seattle center. and they had the exo-skeleton there. needless to say, it was awesome! oh and they had the queen alien right next to it, but the security guard stopped me before i could get a picture with my phone.
zfurie @ Nov 25th 2007 4:17AM
When are they gonna come out with that robot-loader that Ripley uses?
KJmoon117 @ Nov 25th 2007 4:22AM
Yep, Halo .01
john @ Nov 25th 2007 4:45AM
Pfft. Halo my butt.
Starship Troopers 0.1
If you're going to make a reference, go back to one of the canonical references of the genre, not some trite video game.
Ashe @ Nov 25th 2007 9:49AM
you're kidding right? Starship troopers invented the genre? haha.
Murk @ Nov 25th 2007 7:37AM
OUCH.
That was like a drive by shooting. An Ice Burn even.
If I was KJMoon I'd change my name to something else or go to some other tech website.
Wow. I'm still stunned.
Blake Bowen @ Nov 25th 2007 10:51AM
Yes, a book is much more canonical with reality than a videogame.
The earliest fictional powered armor is NOT Starship Troopers, good as that novel is. E.E. Smith came up with it in 1937, in the Lensman books. Go bother someone else John, you parade-rainer.
Jon @ Nov 25th 2007 1:07PM
Sorry to rain on your attempt to be a smart ass Blake Bowen, but the first true sci-fi reference to powered armor comes from the grandfather of sci-fi, H.G. Wells in "War of the Worlds". The Martians all wear powered armor. In fact the Martians had be using powered armor for so long they could barely do anything without it.
Get your facts straight before you attack someone else
john @ Nov 25th 2007 1:07PM
I never said Starship Troopers invented the genre,I said it was one of, if not the, canonical references of the genre. There's a world of difference between them.
Halo, however, is just riding on the coat tails of TONS of other works in the genre.
LondonConsultant @ Nov 25th 2007 2:37PM
- One part of Wikipedia says "The first citable examples of powered suits were the Fat Man underwater suits (with mechanical pantograph arms and a propulsion system), which debuted in Tom Swift and His Jetmarine (1954)".
- And another part of Wikipedia says: "Powered armour as popularised in Starship Troopers can also be traced back to The War of the Worlds; indeed, Heinlein's novel can be seen as a response to Wells'".
- So, either Wikipedia is inconsistent (shock, horror!) or powered armour isn't a powered suit.
- I just out-geeked myself and need to now visit the real world, get a girlfriend/life, etc...
slowerpig81 @ Nov 25th 2007 3:22PM
lol John:
John is master chief's real name...
Tim @ Nov 25th 2007 4:09PM
Doesn't Starcraft predate Starship Troopers? Cause I'm getting a mega-firebat vibe from this suit.
john @ Nov 25th 2007 6:13PM
Tim: I don't think Starcraft was around in 1959, no. :-)
Byzil Mystwing @ Nov 25th 2007 4:25AM
now if only Engadget would give away one of *these*..
Podaman @ Nov 25th 2007 4:33AM
now it just needs giant claws and a bright yellow coat of paint
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6819944270491169097&hl=en
Samo @ Nov 25th 2007 4:43AM
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.
It's more like Alien than Terminator at the moment, then it'll be more Halo, before it'll become Terminator.
Mind you, it sounds like it's built (at the mo) for the exact same reasons as the Alien missile loader.
Pete @ Nov 25th 2007 10:10AM
I agree, this seems pointless for soldiers on the battlefield at the moment -- see the pic of the guy holding the gun? How awkward would it be to use the arms with that gun there? And what would you need the arms for?
Cargo loading and hauling, however, would be a great application for this...
Ian @ Nov 25th 2007 1:27PM
well think about it, if it reduces fatigue then if soldiers wore it on the battle field they could run harder and faster for longer, maybe even have faster reaction time (if the machine helped you move quicker than one normally could) obviously its just a prototype so it will most likely be changed a lot. but it would prove useful even if it saved one person. right?
m @ Nov 25th 2007 3:26PM
sure, it's only a first step, but the artificial intelligence the military is developing in a separate project will be able to complete the necessary R&D for a terminator much quicker than puny human scientists. i think they'll thank us for having invented most of the basic technologies for them, and then walk on our skulls.
Grey Acumen @ Nov 25th 2007 6:57PM
Hey, pete. It's just a mockup, as they said, the arms float, and could probably be covered in bulletproof armor on top of that to allow additional cover.
On top of that, you could have the gun set so that it clips directly into the robot arm, and this would buffer you from the recoil as well as allowing you to carry even heavier guns with a more damaging payload. You could practically have one of these things armed with antitank or anti aircraft missiles.
Ben Holmes @ Nov 25th 2007 4:52AM
Yeah - all they have to figure out is a portable power supply to get rid of that HUGE umbilical cord currently attached to it and this could actually be of some military use. Fat chance. So really, this thing could be useful anywhere they've never heard of a fork-lift truck...
Ghen @ Nov 25th 2007 7:07AM
well like they said in the video, you could find plenty of work for a machine like this on an aircraft carrier.
Suico @ Nov 25th 2007 11:38AM
well, as you might have heard in the end, the cord isnt for power. its a safetycord.
Jon Hirsch @ Nov 25th 2007 6:03PM
I think that the the tether was not just for safety. Seems it may be for power and possibly a link back to a computer.
Keats @ Nov 25th 2007 4:57AM
They didn't mention when these are first gonna come out. My guess is that it'll be at least 1 or 2 years. There's gonna be alot of 'bugs' in the beginning. For them to become durable, stable, mainstream, it will take at least 5 to 10 years. What's the best time to start buying Sarcos shares? How far is SKorea with their developments? These are interesting times! There's alot of money to be made :)
Petz @ Nov 25th 2007 11:25AM
Too late, Sarcos got bought up by Raytheon this year.
luzzio @ Nov 25th 2007 5:12AM
you've got it all wrong Joshua, these are what we'll be using against the inevitable robot invasion.
Ghen @ Nov 25th 2007 7:08AM
Just strap a couple miniguns to it with back mounted ammo? HOLD THE DOCK!!
Ronald Wilshaus @ Nov 25th 2007 6:02AM
Cool indeed, if thought of in any positive, say non combat use. But indeed, as Engadget says....has anyone of you thought of the implications of these things being in use and your house gets raided by them (in autonomous mode) in say, twenty years?
Time for those robot laws to be set in!
Jeffrey @ Dec 2nd 2007 4:42AM
I'm from Texas. If an autonomous robot busts into my (no doubt flying, since this is the future) house, then I'm gonna blow it's CPU off with my heavily armed home-defense E-Frame. :D
Technex @ Nov 25th 2007 6:10AM
Just fricken awesome!
Michael Freeman @ Nov 25th 2007 6:30AM
scary
leland @ Nov 25th 2007 6:57AM
Humans + 20 years = Terrans.
Ghen @ Nov 25th 2007 7:09AM
Think we'll make up with the Russians by then so they can drive our battlecruisers?
Ken @ Nov 25th 2007 12:31PM
Russians piloting Battlecruisers? Only if we can get the rednecks to drive the siege tanks.
Oh yeah and we better get started on researching the Yamato Gun at the Physics Lab now.
Chris @ Nov 25th 2007 3:21PM
Yamato Gun? omg, I had no idea there was anybody else who would remember that reference :)
SteveA @ Nov 26th 2007 11:39AM
You mean the wave-motion gun?
lord_of_hair @ Nov 25th 2007 7:03AM
haha whatever, push that guy on his back and watch him try to get up
you guys have to much imagination, this is far off from being little more than a portable forklift, give it a couple years they might have something to show by then + saying it can run is stupid, I jog faster than that
Chur to the Churr
-Stevie