Sarcos' military exoskeleton becomes a frightening reality

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.

[Ghen @ Nov 25th 2007 7:10AM]

he was only demoing the movements, not the speed.

[billy bob thorton @ Nov 25th 2007 7:40AM]

you've obviously never used a tickle me Elmo. They fall over and stand up on their own just fine

[MikeG @ Nov 25th 2007 4:59PM]

God you're like must be sad to not consider this even remotley interesting.

[ratnikh @ Nov 25th 2007 7:16PM]

@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"

It looked to have excellent stability and easy to balance, plus it has the ability to lift several hundred pounds. Wha tmake syou think, in your infinite wisdom, that he couldn't stand back up? Also, it may well have advanced gyro stabilization, indicated by the fact the despite the units own weight, he was able to stand and bounce on one foot with realtive ease, as well as pivot and lift while on one foot.

Given the weight it can lift and the incredible range of motion it displays, I see no difficulty in picturing him simply standing up. Also, I seriously doubt you could push that guy on his back. It's quite likely that if you tried, you'd be getting the favor returned to you as he ever-so-gently nudged you with 300lbs of force sending you to the floor.

As far as speed; it's not a motorcycle, it's a power suit, dumbass. The fact that he can lift a couple hundred pounds in an eyeblink twist-and-lift maneuver and job across a hangar to perhaps, say, lift a humvee off of you, I'd say it's fairly impressive. More maveuverable than a typical forklift and with much more finesse.

As a prototype, it's damned impressive. Even if it always required a power-tether, within a hangar or warehouse environment, it's still extremely useful given it's outrageous versatility and range of motion. It's amazing that some people have no notion of reality given that they have only ever experienced fantasy and fiction and can't extract themselves into the real world. It's a clea rindication of who is a rational adult and who is an inexperienced child (or posesse sonly the mental faculties of one).

[Marc-O @ Nov 25th 2007 7:23AM]

Pretty damn impressive ! I'll be waiting for the Engadget giveaway. In 2038.

[blaktornado @ Nov 25th 2007 7:38AM]

What are the chances of me getting on if I put it on my Christmas list? :P

[Paul M @ Nov 25th 2007 7:48AM]

If they run Windows will they get pwned and be controllable en masse from an IRC channel?

I for one welcome our new exo-skeleton zombie overlords!

[brian @ Nov 25th 2007 12:59PM]

You will only welcome them for about 15 minutes, then their batteries will wear out. Seriously, you can build anything you want, but making this thing portable is a far bigger challenge than making it work. Battery technology has a long, long way to go to catch up, so unless they want to put a gas tank and an engine on the back of this thing, it's not going very far.

[Kersplatt @ Nov 25th 2007 8:13AM]

I for one welcome our new robotic Ov....

oh whatever.

[Jasper @ Nov 25th 2007 8:19AM]

Eventually, everyone will have to wear these to support their fat selves.

[Josh L @ Nov 25th 2007 1:46PM]

Nah, we'll have some hover-belts like Baron Harkonnen. (Creepy incestuous pedophilia not included.)

[Zoli Honig @ Nov 25th 2007 8:52AM]

I gotta get me one of those with one of them HALO skins

[Ken @ Nov 25th 2007 9:15AM]

The MJOLNIR's had too much robotic enhancement, they broke the user's limbs before the Spartan project came along. Sign me up for the Spartan project, as John 117. =D

[TrafficGeek @ Nov 25th 2007 11:46AM]

urrr....is that what's on your arrest record with the vice squad? John 117? :-o

[bullethead @ Nov 25th 2007 9:45AM]

This reminds me of those Warhammer 40,000 suits I used to paint when I was a child. I especially was frightened by the few words at the end. Step into the machine and become superhuman, step out of it and it becomes a humanoid robot. What's their stock ticker symbol?

[Imran @ Nov 25th 2007 9:59AM]

great(!) yet another way to kill each other.

[Ken @ Nov 25th 2007 10:45AM]

Considering we can't even afford good boots for most ground combatants, the robot army fear is a long, long ways away. And totally agree with Ben Holmes. Let's see some power draw specs on this. Once we know that (which they must know already, obviously), then we'll know how impossible the power backpack is. Unless it's running JP8 and spewing out exhaust...

[Ghen @ Nov 25th 2007 2:34PM]

to expand on both of your points.. by the time they get in the field we will have developed portable cold fusion.

[Ken @ Nov 25th 2007 3:33PM]

Amen to that, brother.

[Thomas_Rowe @ Nov 25th 2007 10:45AM]

I'm actually thinking this could help a lot of people with disabilities.

[Josh L @ Nov 25th 2007 4:25PM]

Help a lot of people with disabilities... crush cars with their bare hands?

[xeijix @ Nov 25th 2007 11:04AM]

I just think it's sad that the US makes robots with the intention to kill whereas Japan makes them to help people.

[Mecharine @ Nov 25th 2007 11:40AM]

If youve watched Gundam, you would know that thats what the Japanese are building towards. Giant killing machines. You gotta start from somewhere, and that somewhere is ladybugbot cleaning train station bathrooms.

[John @ Nov 25th 2007 11:14AM]

Mach III with repulsor rays up next.

[sgt_easton @ Nov 25th 2007 11:14AM]

I think these will have battlefield implications. If the suit can carry so much weight and still function, that weight can be mostly armor.

Imagine a squad of these, having armor that can resist small arms and RPGs with ease, and each member is armed with a 240 or something better. The mission for this would be very specific, but I think these suits would be an asset to the DOD.

[Japanesegorilla @ Nov 25th 2007 11:18AM]

Yeah.... autonomous.... end of humanity as we know it, here we come.

[chris reed @ Nov 25th 2007 11:33AM]

Wow, impressive! This technology could be useful in other areas of course, not just in the military sector.

[Flashpoint @ Nov 25th 2007 11:49AM]

I'd strap a Jet Pack on one of these, a missile launcher and a machine gun to build one of these.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/celloc/92345907/

[Wwhat @ Nov 25th 2007 12:05PM]

Hmm, so the mexicans that carry the cables behind you, how will that work if they are in the army AND illegals?

[Ian @ Nov 25th 2007 1:29PM]

well if u listened to the entire video you would know that it will be battery powered and one of the lines was just a tether so in case something went wrong it wouldnt be a huge disaster.

[Wwhat @ Nov 26th 2007 3:42PM]

You guessed right, I didn't have the sound on, but seriously, it isn't hard to understand that you need a lot of power, not sure how much you can trust on batteries, although I guess they can use hydrogen or even decaying isotopes, in the military industrial machinery.

Pretty nice how much the reactionspeed and general speed has improved over time for these experimental exoskeleton things btw, already better than some older sciencefiction!

[Dr Chaos @ Nov 25th 2007 12:28PM]

wow, with nearly an unlimited weight capacity, imagine what kind of crazy weapons manufacturers could develop! Yeah... BFG. the battlefield of the future is going to look like an anime!

[Iron Chef @ Nov 25th 2007 12:44PM]

scary

[superdynamite @ Nov 25th 2007 12:54PM]

This thing is great!

[Dave Belfer-Shevett @ Nov 25th 2007 1:01PM]

See, the problem with these things is while they're cool and interesting and have a huge gee whiz factor, what they don't talk about is what the heck this thing is going to be powered by. A forklift can pick up a car, sure, but it requires a large engine and fuel to do so, something that's not so easy to carry around on your back.

There's been talk of little internal combustion engines in a backpack to generate power. The holdup still for all of these mobile nifty machines is how to power them, separate from tethers, for a long deployment. Until those problems are solved, these are just pretty toys.

[CaliforniaKid @ Nov 25th 2007 1:03PM]

Crossbreed this with the design path of aerial drones and we might be looking at "flying, robotic soldiers" proceeded by squadrons of stealth fighters and bombers.

[stickmanfc73_ @ Nov 25th 2007 1:31PM]

No need to cross breed. Work on autonomous fighters and bombers has started. I mean, you already got the bomber drones.

This is still cool regardless of it being practical or not. You could have a few of these in your platoon and tiny drones being the eyes and ears on the field. Combine that with a drone in the sky with heavier weapons. A small team of hi tech warriors could really level the landscape.

So I'm assuming we have an EMP bomb now right?

PS. Yeah it is kinda sad that American robotics is focused on military application and from what we've seen Japanese robotics is focused on helping the average Joe. Nm, it's depressing.

[jd @ Nov 25th 2007 1:20PM]

i have two questions:
1) HOw much!?

2) where do i send my resume to U.S. Robotics?

[hybridvigor88 @ Nov 25th 2007 1:32PM]

master chief?

[balderdash @ Nov 25th 2007 2:07PM]

So can they super jump?

[Jongscx @ Nov 25th 2007 2:13PM]

What WOULD be the mobile powersource for these things? The MJOLNIR just goes ahead and uses a small nuclear reactor... I don't think LIPos would even come close.

All of your who are saying it's self-powered, the video says "it is currently Tethered AND has a safety harness"... the tether provides the power. It's that big black cable that the assistant is carrying around in the back. The safety harness is connected to the top of the backpack.

I guess another question is whether they're planning on putting feedback on these things. Unfortunate if you accidentally punch through something and didn't feel it, so you kept going.

[Carl Lumma @ Nov 25th 2007 2:21PM]

Sarcos... love the name...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcophagus

-Carl

[J-Rad @ Nov 25th 2007 2:40PM]

I would LOVE to know how expensive those are! Seems impractical to equip all soldiers right now, but over time, with every new technology, the price drastically drops! [Remember 900 dollar DVD players that are now like 35 bucks?]

[Zack Johnston @ Nov 25th 2007 3:09PM]

I could use one of those to chop wood and stack it.
Plus out the wheat fields I know lots of guys could use one to throw bales onto the trailer.

And maybe a couple of them available at Home Depot to load cement bags in the back of the pick up.

And my farmer friend could pick up his cows and pigs and bring them into the barn...

[David Clark @ Nov 25th 2007 3:43PM]

Reminds me a lot of that "bear suit" that was developed by that inventor guy. He ended up having a lot of money problems and sold it on eBay.

[PerfectC @ Nov 25th 2007 4:58PM]

Time to join the marines and become a superrobotwarrior!

[MikeG @ Nov 25th 2007 4:58PM]

Who cares about what use it can do?
I want to see how hard it can punch a man, how far it can throw a man, this could totally be a completley new martial art.

[James @ Nov 25th 2007 5:09PM]

Blizzard Entertainment has been contracted to provide a troop control interface for the Joint Chiefs.

[Worf @ Nov 25th 2007 5:27PM]

Ah, the Starship Troopers are here... (not the movie, but the book / animated series).

Though, the big question is, how much battery life do you get out of this thing? Can't be fun to run out of juice in the middle of a firefight (or dangerous, even, if you're loading heavy items since they can fall on you...). Or does it go stiff, iron-maiden style?

[zozzy @ Nov 25th 2007 6:00PM]

Hoooray one more way to lower the physical abilities of a human body, and make us weaker than we already are, way to go!!